Bengals, Trojans set date

Stationed outside his home locker room late Friday night, Lewiston guard Ryan Young had a conversation with his coach that lasted for about 2 seconds. Still, Dave Cornelia’s message to the Bengals’ defensive ace couldn’t have been any clearer.

“Get rested,” Cornelia told Young. “You’ve got Shawn Reid on Tuesday.”

Once the Bengals posted a carefree 65-40 win over Coeur d’Alene in the first round of the 5A regional boys’ basketball tournament at Lewiston’s Booth Hall, Cornelia’s focus quickly shifted to the title matchup with Post Falls.

The third-seeded Trojans, led by a dynamite performance from Reid, zoomed past No. 2 Lake City 62-50 earlier in the day at Booth Hall to set up a meeting with the state’s top-ranked team at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Booth Hall.

The Vikings (8-13) and Timberwolves (16-5) will collide Tuesday at LC in a loser-out game, with the victor facing the loser of the title game on Thursday.

Post Falls 62, Lake City 50: Reid, a 6-foot-4 guard, went off for 23 points to push the Trojans (16-5) past LC for the second time this year.

But for how good the junior and his teammates were on the offensive end, Post Falls pocketed this win behind its defense.

The Timberwolves never found a rhythm and shot just 33 percent (15 of 45) from the field.

“Defense was what won us that game,” Reid said. “We haven’t been playing very well defensively.”

Reid poured in 15 of his 23 in the first half to help Post Falls bolt to a 13-point lead. Down 8-2 in the early stages, the Trojans went on a 22-3 surge to take control.

LC cut its deficit to 42-37 early in the fourth quarter, but PF quickly reasserted control.

“I think Post Falls played great,” Lake City coach Jim Winger said. “And we just played poorly, especially defensively where we broke down. We’ve been playing good defense all year.”

The Timberwolves’ biggest deficiency on defense came on the perimeter, where Post Falls looked comfortable for most of the night. Reid knocked down two triples and Malcolm Colbert and Connor Hill had one apiece in the first half.

Lewiston 65, Coeur d’Alene 40: The Bengals’ across-the-board height made it tough enough on the Vikings. But LHS made things doubly difficult by canning its first five 3-pointers.

Lewiston (17-3) finished 10 of 16 from beyond the arc and looked crisp throughout.

“Our shooting percentage was good all night long, except for from the free-throw line,” Cornelia said. “You’re not going to shoot the ball like that every day.”

It was a drastically different outcome from earlier this month, when the Vikings upset LHS at their place.

“We kind of had a chip on our shoulder from that,” Young said. “We wanted to show that was a fluke. We messed up. We’re not going to do it again.”

Intermountain League

Orofino 51, Bonners Ferry 46: At Orofino, Michael Welch had 26 points to lead the Maniacs (8-11, 4-5) past the Badgers (5-13, 3-6). Miguel Mendez led Bonners Ferry with 16.

Timberlake 60, Kellogg 56: At Spirit Lake, Cooper Simpson’s two free throws with 4 seconds left iced the Tigers’ (4-14, 1-8) victory over the Wildcats (9-10, 5-5).

Derek Tymesen led the way with 18 points, including three fourth-quarter 3-pointers. Pat Lagrimanta added 15 points.

Idaho 1A District I-II

Nezperce 68, Kootenai 43: At Nezperce, the Indians outscored the Warriors (4-13) 24-5 in the fourth quarter to break the game open.

Kolten Wilms paced Kootenai with 14 points. The Warriors face Clark Fork in a loser-out game at Lewiston today.