Lake City: A team of destiny

It’s worth another look or two.

And just to think that the State 5A champion Lake City High girls basketball team came so close to not getting to state.

Twelve nights prior to Saturday, with 34 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Lake City trailed Post Falls 33-29 in a 5A Region I loser-out game.

Somehow, someway, the Timberwolves rallied to force overtime. And they survived a second overtime before prevailing 49-42.

LC followed four days later by defeating Capital of Boise 55-36 to earn a state berth.

It’s very likely that had No. 1-ranked Coeur d’Alene played any team other than Lake City in the state championship game Saturday, the Vikings would have won and probably would have won going away.

The problem is Coeur d’Alene faced an LC team that was fearless from the opening tip. And it showed. The Timberwolves weren’t going to back down and the Vikings had a little bit of that play-not-to-lose look in their faces.

Let’s make this very clear: LC (23-4) was the best team on the Idaho Center floor Saturday. Period. End of discussion. For whatever reason, LC was supposed to win and did so 46-40.

LC played flawlessly in the first quarter, opening an 18-8 lead. Then the “ugly” T-Wolves took over for a quarter – that group, for lack of a better term, that suffered through hideous stretches of offense (see their last three games against Post Falls). With sophomore post Katie Baker, arguably the best player in the state and certainly the best player in the 5A tourney last weekend, on the bench in foul trouble, LC gave away all but two points of its early lead.

Despite shooting woes, CdA (22-3) was determined to make a game of it in the third quarter. Taking advantage of a couple of LC turnovers, the Vikings used a 9-2 run to build their biggest lead at 29-24.

The T-Wolves answered with a 5-0 spurt to knot the score at 29-all, but a breakaway layup by senior forward Jenna DeLong gave CdA a 31-29 lead going into the fourth quarter.

When senior guard Lindsey Stark made her seventh 3-pointer of the tournament, it gave CdA its final lead at 40-39 with 3:12 to play.

Baker put LC ahead to stay at 41-40 with a jumper in the key, as the T-Wolves scored seven straight points to end the game.

So, one can’t fault LC coach Darren Taylor if just a little part of him thinks Saturday was predetermined.

“Team of destiny, no doubt about it,” Taylor said. “We’ve got to call ourselves that. We are a team of destiny, but it’s more than just that. We found out how to win on the road over at Enumclaw (December tournament), and we haven’t (forgotten) all season. We just built on it and got better and better.”

Sweet dreams

LC senior guard Richelle Fenenbock, a three-year starter, said she woke up Saturday morning knowing her team was going to win.

That feeling only intensified through the day.

“We just realized that we had this in us and we weren’t going to lose and let this moment pass us by,” Fenenbock said.

Best in the state?

Taylor has no problem telling anyone who he thinks the best player in the state is this year.

He watched the 6-foot-1 Baker score 60 points and grab 25 rebounds in three games at Nampa.

“She should be the MVP in the state of Idaho,” Taylor said. “Let’s not even have a vote.”

Second, two straight years

For the second consecutive year, the Vikings finished as the bridesmaids.

This one was much more disappointing – especially for CdA’s two seniors, DeLong and Stark.

“Last year we weren’t supposed to be here,” Poffenroth said. “Last year was a great year. A bunch of young kids that stepped up and did what they were supposed to do. This year the expectation was that we’d win it. So I guess I can’t quit now. I’ll have to come back.”

Statement for the North

After accepting their medals, the players from both teams gathered in middle of the Idaho Center court for a group picture.

“That picture was all about the North right there,” Baker said. “This win is a shout-out to the South that the North’s got game.”

Proud administrator

Harry Amend, the Coeur d’Alene School District Superintendent, made the trip to Nampa to watch CdA and LC play. Saturday, Amend was wearing a new state tourney sweatshirt with each school’s name and mascot printed on each sleeve.

“This is a superintendent’s dream,” Amend said about the title-game showdown.

This ‘n that

More from Taylor: “There’s no doubt that these are the best two teams in the state,” he said. “It’s going to be that way for a while.” …. The estimated crowd of 1,000 for the 5A title game is the smallest since the games were permanently moved to the Idaho Center 11 years ago (1996-97). …. It was the first time since CdA won state in 2000 that a non-District III (Boise area) team won a state title.

•LC will have an assembly Tuesday afternoon at 2 p.m. to honor the girls team. The public is welcome to attend.