Vikings capture regional
Coeur d’Alene High girls basketball coach Dale Poffenroth stressed that defense had to be the difference in the 5A Region I tournament title game Saturday.
That’s why his team spent most of its practices this week working on defense.
Turns out Poffenroth was a prophet. His No. 1-ranked Vikings held Post Falls scoreless for 10 minutes and 58 seconds in the first half, including the second quarter, and the final 2:46 of the game as Coeur d’Alene captured its third straight regional title, 47-31, before an estimated crowd of 1,000 at Elmer Jordan Court.
CdA (20-2) advances to state, which will be held Feb. 15-17 at the Idaho Center in Nampa. The Viks will take on the still-to-be-determined District III (Boise area) runner-up in their state opener.
“I told you last night that defense would be a key,” Poffenroth told a reporter afterward. “I was real happy with the defense in the first half, but I wasn’t real pleased with the defense late in the third and early in the fourth quarter. But we had good defense at the end again. It was a gut-check thing. We spent all week working on defense.”
Post Falls (17-5) and Lake City (18-4) will face off for the third time in 11 days Tuesday night at LC to decide which team advances to play for a state berth in a play-in game. The loser-out game tips off at 7.
CdA 47, Post Falls 31: Denise Schmidt scored inside the lane to give the Trojans a 7-4 lead with 2:58 remaining in the first quarter.
It would be the Trojans’ last points until Kandice McArthur hit a spinning jumper at the 6:58 mark of the third quarter.
Including a basket by post Deanna Dotts to open the third period, CdA scored 14 straight points for an 18-7 lead.
McArthur’s basket finally loosened up PF. The Trojans pulled within 20-17 midway through the third period. But CdA used an 8-0 spurt to open its biggest lead at that point at 31-19. A steal and a basket by sophomore standout Kama Griffitts gave the Viks the 12-point margin with 1:23 to go in the quarter.
The points were few and far between for the Trojans. The credit for that mostly goes to CdA’s defense.
Still, the Trojans were very much in the game through most of the fourth quarter. In fact, CdA went through a scoring drought of its own in the first 5 minutes of the period. Two free throws by Jordan Schoening pulled the Trojans within 33-31 with 2:46 to play.
But those would be the final points for PF.
“We never got into a good offensive flow all night,” PF coach Chris Johnson said. “That’s a credit to their defense. They played really well.”
Seconds later, sophomore guard Amy Warbrick hit a key 3-pointer for CdA that opened the floodgates. The Viks finished on a 14-0 run.
Griffitts, CdA’s leading scorer, got off to a slow start. She missed five shots in the first quarter, but she got rolling in the second period when she scored nine of her game-high 17 points. She finished with eight rebounds and three assists.
“I wasn’t on (early), but my team is so great and they just kept playing,” Griffitts said.
“The second quarter and the second half we just got it together and played well.”
During their second-quarter drought, the Trojans went 0 for 9 from the field. Griffitts didn’t realize until after the game that PF went scoreless in the second period.
“Defense was our main focus,” Griffitts said. “We just wanted to get every ball like it was the last chance at state. We just had that mind-set.”
CdA seemed to get itself out of rhythm offensively in the fourth quarter. But Warbrick’s 3-pointer got the Viks on track.
“When she went to shoot it I went ‘uh oh’. But when it went in I said ‘good shot’,” Poffenroth said, smiling. “That put us over the top. If they had scored and gotten the lead we might have been in trouble.”
“That was a killer,” Johnson said of Warbrick’s trey. “We had it down to two points and we had some momentum going and she drilled the great shot.”
Dotts and Sadie Simon each had nine points to support Griffitts. But Dotts’ biggest contribution came on the boards and defense. She had 12 rebounds and three blocked shots.
LC 51, Lewiston 38: The Timberwolves were definitely still thinking about their 62-57 loss to Post Falls the night before in the first half of the loser-out game Saturday afternoon.
And Lewiston took advantage, taking an 11-9 lead after the first quarter.
It was a much different experience for the Bengals after the shocking first half the night before against CdA. The Viks outscored Lewiston 39-6 in the first two quarters Friday. The Bengals got their sixth point at the 3:19 mark of the first period Saturday.
A 3-pointer by Megan Mills gave Lewiston its biggest lead at 22-16 with 2:19 to go before halftime. But LC started to show some life, closing within 23-22 by intermission.
Finally, LC started playing like it should in the second half. The T-Wolves used a 12-3 run to open a 38-31 lead after three periods. Lewiston (9-12) never threatened in the fourth quarter.
“We played well when we had to,” LC coach Darren Taylor said. “I think we were crushed by the loss last night – more than anybody will admit. I think it hurt. We didn’t finish the game last night and we had a little hangover from that today. It took us a while, but we played excellent in the second half.”
Sparking LC in the second half was senior guard Richelle Fenenbock. She scored nine of her game-high 17 points in the final two quarters. She also had three assists, three steals and three rebounds.
Taylor lamented the turnovers again – something that has haunted LC in the last two weeks. The T-Wolves had 14 in the first half, but played with much better discipline in the second half.
“Obviously that’s a key for us,” Taylor said. “We’ve got to take care of the ball if we’re going to beat anybody.”
Fenenbock chalked up her team’s slow start to overlooking Lewiston.
“I hate to say this, but I think we thought we’d come out and beat Lewiston like we did last time,” Fenenbock said. “We thought we were going to beat Post Falls and obviously it didn’t happen. When we came out in the second half (against Lewiston) we just decided we weren’t going to end our season and careers this way.
” We wanted to win and play Tuesday.”