Defense propels Cd'A girls back to state
MARK NELKE | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 14 years, 11 months AGO
Mark Nelke covers high school and North Idaho College sports, University of Idaho football and other local/regional sports as a writer, photographer, paginator and editor at the Coeur d’Alene Press. He has been at The Press since 1998 and sports editor since 2002. Before that, Mark was the one-man sports staff for 16 years at the Bonner County Daily Bee in Sandpoint. Earlier, he was sports editor for student newspapers at Spokane Falls Community College and Eastern Washington University. Mark enjoys the NCAA men's basketball tournament and wiener dogs — and not necessarily in that order. | February 12, 2010 11:00 PM
COEUR d'ALENE - Any suspense leading up to Friday night's 5A Region 1 girls basketball tournament second-place game - with the winner going to state and the loser done for the season - disappeared before the first quarter was over.
Coeur d'Alene scored the game's first 11 points and never looked back, leading by 26 points en route to a 59-38 victory over visiting Lake City at Elmer Jordan Court.
"Oh my gosh, there was so much pressure coming in," said Coeur d'Alene senior guard Dayna Drager, who had 10 points, two steals and two assists. "We tried to focus on defense. Last game they made 30 points off their 3s, and we knew, stop their 3s, and just focus on defense the whole time and that will run the rest of the game."
Coeur d'Alene (19-4), the two-time defending state champions, will play Boise (22-1) in the first round Thursday at 2 p.m. PST at the Idaho Center in Nampa. Boise lost to Centennial (21-2) 44-39 in the District 3 championship game Friday night.
Lake City, which finished 15-8, again had no answer for Carli Rosenthal, Coeur d'Alene's 6-foot-3 junior post. Rosenthal scored the game's first six points, hit her first seven shots from the floor, and scored 12 of her 16 points in the first half. She finished 8 of 10 from the floor and also had six rebounds and three assists as the Vikings passed the ball well.
Freshman post Kendalyn Brainard added 13 points, five rebounds and two assists for the Vikings. Amanda Buttrey had seven points and three steals, Heather Baughman three assists and two steals.
"We bounced back pretty well" from Tuesday's loss at Lewiston in the regional title game, Coeur d'Alene coach Dale Poffenroth said. "There never was really any doubt as to who was going to win (tonight). ... the kids didn't want to let anything get in their way, and made sure they got where they needed to go. The idea was to play defense, and 14 points in the first half was pretty good defense."
Lake City missed its first six shots, committed 13 turnovers in the first half, and finished with 23 turnovers. Coeur d'Alene jumped out to leads of 15-2 and 17-4 early in the second quarter, and Drager's baseline jumper with six seconds left in the half gave Coeur d'Alene a 29-14 halftime lead.
"If you understand matchups, you understand our difficulty against them," said Lake City coach Royce Johnston, who has no starter taller than 5-10. "Carli was good tonight ... they were tough tonight. We just have a hard time rebounding the ball and getting second shots against them. We didn't get off to a very good start, and it just kind of snowballed after that."
Junior Sydney Butler had 15 points and four assists for Lake City, which has no seniors on the roster. Junior Dailyn Ball added 11 points.
Lake City 2 12 10 14 - 38
Coeur d'Alene 11 18 19 11 - 59
LAKE CITY - J. Butler 0, S. Butler 15, Smith 3, Kacalek 0, Lewis 0, Rowe 3, Ball 11, Kerr 0, Mitchell 6.
COEUR d'ALENE - Baughman 2, Buttrey 7, Drager 10, Orlandi 0, Williams 0, Parker 4, Legel 5, Petit 2, Rosenthal 16, Brainard 13, Palmer 0.
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“The whole process has been completely amazing,” said Nathan Williams, now in his fourth season as the Badgers boys basketball coach. “And the parents … it’s an hour and a half to Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, when we’d play an AAU game, and an hour and a half back, and there were so many times there was 6, 8 inches of snow. And we’ve got a game at 8 a.m. They’d always schedule us at 8 a.m., coming from Bonners. So we’re waking up at 5 … it was crazy. But the commitment from the parents and the kids has been amazing.”