Wallace captures district title

The downfall of the Wallace High girls basketball team, as it turns out, was greatly exaggerated.

Second at the State 1A tournament a year ago, the Miners returned the core of that team this year. But numerous early struggles made for a pothole-infested road this season.

Wallace overcame much of that adversity Friday, avenging two North Star League losses to conference champ Kootenai with a decisive 53-43 victory in the District I title game at Lakeland High School.

The Miners (12-10) advance to state, which begins Wednesday in Nampa. Wallace opens against District IV fourth-place finisher Shoshone. Kootenai (17-3) and Lakeside (8-12) play tonight in a loser-out game to decide a second state berth. Tipoff is at 6.

In a loser-out opener Friday, Lakeside thumped Clark Fork 65-35.

Wallace 53, Kootenai 43: To say the Miners’ season has been up and down would be an understatement – most of the year it was down.

Especially when they found themselves at 6-9 with five games left in the regular season.

The win Friday was Wallace’s seventh in the last eight games.

“We struggled through the season, but I’d say the last three or four ballgames I started to see their intensity start to pick up,” Wallace coach Kirby Krulitz said. “I’m not the kind of coach that pays much attention to how the practices go, but the last two practices they were loose. You could see the look like ‘We can get this done. We’re going to do it.’ We’re a little weaker than last year because we don’t have a lot of post players, but they said they can get it done, and they did it.”

Wallace’s victory Friday was much like many of its wins a year ago. The Miners finished 24-2, falling in the state title game.

The Miners controlled the district final from the early second quarter on. A basket by senior post Krista Williams gave Wallace its biggest lead in the second period at 24-15 with 3:21 remaining before halftime. Kootenai fought back within 29-25 going into intermission.

The closest Kootenai would get in the second half was four points. Two free throws by senior wing Cassie Scheffelmaier pulled the Warriors within 40-36 seconds into the fourth quarter.

A rebound basket by Williams and a free throws moments later allowed Wallace to lead 51-41 with 54 seconds to go.

Wallace’s trio of returning starters – point guard Cara Hayman, post Lisa Carver and Williams – combined for 51 of Wallace’s 53 points. Hayman had a team-high 21 and Carver and Williams matched each other with 15 apiece. Carver had a team-high 14 rebounds and two steals and Williams had 12 rebounds.

“I told them all along that we can go down to state and win,” Krulitz said. “Nobody is going to take us especially serious because our record isn’t very impressive. But I think they’re playing pretty well and this is definitely a confidence booster.”

Hayman agreed.

“We finally just came out and played how we did last year,” Hayman said. “We got all the bricks that were on our shoulders off.”

Carver said the Miners saved their best for the district title game.

“Toward the end of the season we started to pull together as a team,” Carver said. “It took us a while to get used to each other. By far this was our best game. We definitely wanted this game bad.”

Kootenai scored 58 and 56 points in two league wins over Wallace. The Miners stymied Kootenai’s offense Friday.

Scheffelmaier led Kootenai with 17 points, 15 rebounds and three assists.

“We played bad and we had too many turnovers,” Scheffelmaier said. “And we didn’t play good enough defense. They were hitting their shots tonight. They didn’t play the game we know they can play (during the regular season).”

Lakeside 65, Clark Fork 35: The Knights controlled most facets of the game in running away from the Wampus Cats (7-12).

Saundra Curley led Lakeside with 21 points and four assists. She made five 3-pointers. Rian Miller had 13 points and nine rebounds.

Bailey Hewitt led Clark Fork with 15 points.