Vikings unwind, undo Tigers

Early-game nervousness can sometimes evolve into a full-blown panic – especially early in the season.

But Coeur d’Alene coach Dale Poffenroth refused to let his visiting Vikings cross that line Friday night, opting instead to humor his troops following a dreadful first quarter.

His approach seemed to work perfectly as Idaho’s two-time defending state champions scratched back from a 12-point deficit early in the second period to knock off host Lewis and Clark 53-41 in a non-league girls basketball showdown between a pair of traditional powers in their respective states.

Dayna Drager finished with 15 points, Kendalyn Brainard added 13 and Carli Rosenthal, CdA’s 6-foot-3 junior center, scored eight – all of them in the second half – as the Vikings (5-0) remained unbeaten. LC, which was playing its season opener, got 15 points from sophomore guard Devyn Galland, but had no answer for CdA’s Rosenthal in the second half.

The Vikings were horrible in the opening period, making only one of their first six shots, while turning the ball over 11 times against LC’s full-court defensive pressure. But after watching the Tigers stretch their 15-5 first-period lead to 17-5 early in the second, they calmed down and went on a 19-10 run that had them back in the game at intermission.

Drager fueled the big comeback by scoring eight straight points – six of which came from the foul line – and then turned things over to Rosenthal in the second half.

“We just weren’t being that aggressive,” Drager said of her team’s early struggles. “But we were really nervous going in, too, and that’s what affected us the most.”

Poffenroth told his players at the end of the maddening first quarter that they were playing like “one of those little rubber-band airplanes, where you wind up the propeller and let it fly.

“Only they were wound up way too tight, and they were far too nervous,” he added. “I told them all you need to do is just take a deep breath and let the rubber band wind down so the airplane won’t fly any more and we’ll be fine.

Which is what the Vikings did, outscoring the Tigers 29-13 in the second half – mainly behind the inside play of Rosenthal.

“Carli finally woke up and played the way Carli can play,” Poffenroth said. “She had a good second half, but the first half she wasn’t even there. But I talked to her at halftime, gave her some goals and told her to do these little things, and all of a sudden, she started eating them up.”