CdA boys win regional title

Coeur d’Alene coach Kent Leiss called Friday’s 5A Region I basketball championship one of the few close games his team has played all season – and it was certainly that.

A pair of back-to-back Andrew Prohaska steals midway through the third quarter that Nate Clinton turned into fast-break baskets may have made the difference in a thrilling 40-35 victory that sends Coeur d’Alene to state with its second straight regional title.

The Vikings (20-2), ranked No. 1 in the state, open against District IV-V-VI runner-up Madison (15-9) at 5:15 p.m. PST Thursday at the Idaho Center in Nampa. A familiar foe, the Bobcats and the Vikings are 1-1 against each other this season. Madison one by one at Coeur d’Alene to avenge an 11-point CdA victory at Madison.

No. 3 Lewiston (14-7) remains alive for the region’s second state berth and takes on No. 2 Lake City (17-6), which eliminated visiting No. 4 Post Falls 58-46 Friday. Game time for the loser-out, winner-to-state game is 5 p.m. at LC.

Leiss admitted his team may have suffered from a little stage fright.

“I think the toughest games to win are the games to get to the state tournament or to get to the Final Four,” Leiss said. “This is a lot of pressure and you never now how young kids are going to react.

“They admitted all of us were a little tight in that first half – I mean every single one of them, and we struggled, but we came out in the second half, we got after it and we got a couple of steals, and I think we got a couple of buckets in transition that just loosened our players up.”

Both Coeur d’Alene and much-improved Lewiston endured horrible 14-point halves, but the Vikings got theirs out of the way early. The Vikings battled back from a 21-14 halftime deficit and pulled to within two, then tied it at 25 on the key Lewiston turnovers that Clinton converted on assists from Prohaska.

After a huge 3-pointer from the corner by sophomore guard Devon Austin gave the Vikings the lead at 28-27 two minutes later, Lewiston would lead only once more, 31-30 at the end of the third quarter.

A pair of pressure-packed Brad Mitchell free throws with just less than a minute to go in the final quarter put the Vikings up 38-35 and sophomore Connor White nailed two more with 3.5 seconds left, the final nails for the Bengals, who managed just four points in the period.

Clinton,who finished with a game-high 15 points, said it was a “pep talk” from his coach at the break that spurred the comeback.

“It was pretty much just Leiss … in the locker room at halftime,” Clinton said. “He said we were too excited and not playing our game.

“He said if we calmed down, things would happen for us.”

Lewiston, which was whistled 16 times to Coeur d’Alene’s nine and suffered from a questionable non-call when guard Ridge Fuentes was bumped out of bounds by Mitchell with 22 seconds left, shot just 1 of 7 from the field in the fourth quarter.

But it was that post-halftime stretch that Bengals coach Dave Cornelia pointed to after the game.

“Honestly,the biggest key was the third quarter,” Cornelia said. “We turned it over and started making some cross-court passes that we shouldn’t be making and they led to transition lay-ins; I mean, we hold that team to 40, we should be good enough to win.

“We just were careless with the ball, and they did a good job of capitalizing on it.”

Lake City 58, Post Falls 46: Nick Fromm scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead the Timberwolves to a win over the Trojans in a loser-out game in Coeur d’Alene.

Lake City outscored Post Falls 13-4 in the third quarter to take a 39-25 lead into the fourth.

Trent Bridges chipped in 11 points for the Timberwolves.

Shawn Reid tallied a team-high 14 points and grabbed five rebounds for the Trojans, who finish the season with an 8-14 record.

Lake City (17-5) advances to play Lewiston in a winner-to-state, loser-out game today.

1A

Clark Fork 66, Lakeside 51: Drew Wilkinson scored a game-high 17 points and Thomas McMahon added 16 points and 15 rebounds as Clark Fork earned a spot in the state tournament with a victory over Lakeside at Kellogg High School.

Jared Broggi had 16 points and nine rebounds and Mike Martin added 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists for the Wampus Cats (17-4).

Merle Bighead tallied a team-high 15 points for the Knights (14-6), who will play Wallace in a winner-to-state, loser-out game today at 6 p.m. at Kellogg. Wallace beat Kootenai 56-28 earlier on Friday.