Timberwolves outlast Trojans
These are the kinds of things that happen when teams play each other four times in one season.
Post Falls held Lake City without a field goal for over 15 minutes in one stretch Tuesday night, but the host Timberwolves staged a furious rally late in regulation and outlasted Post Falls 49-42 in double overtime in the Class 5A Region 1 girls basketball consolation final.
Lake City (19-4) will face the fifth-place team from Region III (the greater Boise area) at Grangeville High School on Saturday, and the winner will advance to the state tournament. Post Falls’ wrapped up its season at 17-6.
“I look into their eyes,” Lake City coach Darren Taylor said, “and they’re not going to let this season end.”
Trailing 33-29 with 34 seconds left in regulation, the Timberwolves turned to one of their six seniors, Riki Moreland, who converted two layins in the final 19 seconds to knot the score at 33-all to force overtime. Lake City again avoided defeat in the first overtime when Katie Baker’s layin tied the game at 37-37 with nine seconds remaining and forced the second extra session.
Richelle Fenenbock fired in a go-ahead 3-pointer to open the second overtime for the Timberwolves, and they never trailed again. Caitlin Crimp buried five of six free throws in the final 2 1/2 minutes to maintain Lake City’s narrow lead.
“As a team, we’re usually consistent on free throws – like 75 percent,” said Crimp, noting Lake City made only eight of 18 attempts from the line before converting seven of eight in the second overtime. “It’s not like us to miss those. But I didn’t let the pressure get to me.”
Moreland scored on a putback with 2:23 remaining in the second quarter to give Lake City a 21-15 lead, but the Timberwolves went cold from the floor and couldn’t maintain their advantage. Lake City didn’t score another field goal until Baker’s layin with 3:03 left in the game, a streak of futility nearly two quarters long that allowed the Trojans to come back and take the lead.
Jordan Schoening’s 3-pointer gave the Trojans a 32-27 lead with 2:40 left in the fourth quarter, but Post Falls missed three of four free throws – two of which were the front end of 1-and-1 opportunities – in the last 70 seconds of regulation to give Lake City the window it needed to prolong the contest.
“We were taking good shots during that stretch where we weren’t scoring,” Fenenbock said. “They just weren’t falling. Our confidence got down – not to the point where it would cost us the game, but it got where we couldn’t score. … But once we got that first shot in, we knew we weren’t going to lose.”
Added Taylor: “We’ve got all the talent in the world, but we need to cut out that one bad stretch. We can’t have one quarter where we don’t value possession.”
Fenenbock and Emma Hawn give Taylor two feisty, aggressive guards at the top of the Timberwolves’ 2-3 zone. The duo prevented the Trojans from getting open looks at the top of the arc and the high post, instead redirecting Post Falls’ offense to the corners where it could be corralled more easily.
Lake City’s defense flustered the Trojans throughout the second quarter, and Post Falls went seven minutes between field goals during one stretch to allow the Timberwolves to score 11 of 14 points during that span to take a 22-17 lead into halftime.
“Our 2-3 zone is as good as I’ve seen in girls basketball,” Taylor said. “We extend so well that a team may get a (3-pointer), but it’s once in a blue moon. It’s a tough zone.”