Lewiston blocks LC from state
Nobody is going to accuse this year’s Lewiston basketball team of being an offensive juggernaut.
But consistent improvement late in the season, combined with rock-solid defense, brought the Bengals something much more important than scoring accolades Saturday. The Bengals earned their seventh straight trip to the state tournament with a 38-37 victory over Lake City at the 5A Region I tournament.
Lewiston (15-7) will meet District III runner-up Vallivue at 7 p.m. PST Thursday in the final game of opening-day action at the Idaho Center in Nampa.
After a tough setback at Coeur d’Alene in Friday night’s regional championship, Bengals senior wing Steven Heitzman described the emotional roller coaster.
“It’s kind of a blur right now, you know,” said Heitzman, who finished with just four points but was all over the court all night, collecting four rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot. “We were hoping to win last night and go to state, but we’re going to state tonight. … Whatever way you have to do it, we just got together and pulled it off.”
The loser-out, winner-to-state contest featured eight ties and seven lead changes. Unfortunately for the T-Wolves, none of those happened during a fourth quarter in which neither team seemed willing, or able, to administer the coup de grace.
Not helping LC’s cause was the foul trouble of 6-foot-6 senior standout Nick Fromm, who missed much of the third quarter and fouled out with 2:35 left in the fourth.
Twice, though, LC pulled to within one in the final period, the second coming with 23 seconds left when Trent Bridges drilled a clutch 3-pointer from the left wing to make the score 38-37.
That 3-pointer, however, was LC’s lone bucket from beyond the arc in the game. After Lewiston’s Justin Podrabsky and Ridge Fuentes each missed a pair of double-bonus foul shots in the waning seconds, Bridges, with defensive pressure in his face, missed one final 3 at the end.
LC coach Jim Thacker lamented his team’s lack of offensive firepower, caused in large part to a couple of key injuries, and pointed to his team’s 14-for-22 free-throw shooting.
“I feel bad for my seniors, especially – they put a lot of hard work in,” Thacker said.
“But they played hard, and we got back in it … and we actually had a couple of looks there at the end.”
•Darrick Holmquist scored 13 points and the Wallace Miners clinched a berth in the State 1A playoffs with a 47-38 victory over the Lakeside Knights in 1A District 1 play at Kellogg High School.
Marcus Matile added 11 points and Jared Bilaski 10 for Wallace.
Merlin Weaslehead had 14 points, nine rebounds and three assists for Lakeside.
•Moscow earned a State 4A berth with a 61-39 win over visiting Lakeland.