Proud pack

NAMPA, Idaho – Darren Taylor’s pregame speech to his Lake City High girls basketball team Saturday was short and matter of fact.

After all, his Timberwolves were minutes away from taking on their crosstown rival in the State 5A championship game. He didn’t need to be long winded or wax poetic.

Taylor asked his players which team won the last time the intracity neighbors played. His team got the point.

Lake City outplayed Coeur d’Alene, upsetting the No. 1-ranked Vikings 46-40 before an estimated crowd of 1,000 at the Idaho Center.

It wasn’t the best executed game, but it’s doubtful either team could have played harder. Bodies were flying around, both teams committed several hard but clean fouls and two players from each team suffered minor injuries but were able to continue playing.

Just another showdown between rivals. Except it had a lot more riding on it.

LC (23-4) is the second team in as many years to deny CdA (22-3) a state championship. Centennial knocked off the Vikings last year.

The intensity could be felt before the game started. Neither team could agree on a game ball. Both wanted theirs. Finally, the tournament manager picked a neutral ball and neither team liked that decision either.

But after the awards had been handed out in the middle of the Idaho Center floor, both teams huddled for a joint team picture – no doubt a first in the history of a state championship. One can be sure that intracity rivals Boise and Borah didn’t do that in 2001 when Boise slipped past Borah 17-7 in the lowest-scoring final in history.

LC came out strongly, playing perhaps its best quarter of the three games at state by opening an 18-8 lead. Maybe it had something to do with Taylor’s pregame speech.

“My pregame talk I asked some questions,” Taylor said. “Question No. 1 was, ‘Who won the last time we played?’ They got a little chuckle out of that.”

The answer is: LC won the last time the teams played, a 56-47 win in the Fight for the Fish.

CdA overcame the early deficit in the second quarter, taking advantage of 10 LC turnovers to pull within 22-20 by halftime.

The game remained tight through the third quarter. A breakaway layup by Jenna DeLong off a steal allowed the Vikings to take a 31-29 lead into the final period.

The score was tied three times early in the fourth quarter before sophomore Katie Baker made a jump shot and junior guard Emma Hawn got a steal and layup to put the T-Wolves ahead 39-35 with 5:01 to play.

CdA had one final spurt. A rebound basket by sophomore Amy Warbrick and a 3-pointer by Lindsey Stark pushed the Vikings ahead a final time at 40-39.

LC took the lead for good at 41-40 when Baker, who scored a game-high 17 points, hit an 8-footer in the key with 3 minutes remaining. The T-Wolves made 5 of 6 foul shots in the final 51 seconds.

“What a journey, what a special journey,” Taylor said. “We’ve been working so hard to get to this point. I’m speechless. We just all broke into tears in there (the locker room).

“It was so much hard work. Finally the girls got the payoff at the end. Those six seniors – they’ve been through a lot of on-court, off-court stuff over the last three years. They persevered through everything. They deserve this.”

Baker got the birthday present she wanted.

“I’ve gotten a lot of stuff for my birthday – it’s my sweet 16th – but this is the No. 1 gift I could ever ask for,” Baker said.

Taylor said LC’s play in the first quarter was exactly how he drew it up.

“We wanted to come out (and) figuratively punch them in the face a little bit so that they knew we were going to get out there and compete,” he said. “And we did that. It was a good start. It gave us a little cushion so we could handle their runs. We knew they were going to have several runs. We just kept saying don’t get too high and don’t get too low.”

CdA coach Dale Poffenroth said his team’s poor shooting, particularly in the first half, was significant.

“We shot 22 percent in the first half and I don’t know if the second half was any better,” said Poffenroth, whose team shot 27 percent overall (12 of 44). “We didn’t really run what we practiced to run. We got a little carried away.

“I don’t know if we played that way because we were a little more nervous, or we played that way because we were supposed to win it, or we played that way because they made us play that way. I don’t know. We certainly dug ourselves a hole and we couldn’t get back out of it.”

Baker led LC with nine rebounds. Hawn and senior Richelle Fenenbock combined for 13 points, eight steals and four assists. Senior Riki Moreland assisted Baker in the post with 12 points.

Stark led CdA with 16 points.