Higbie leads top-ranked Vikings to victory

STANWOOD, Wash. - Ty Higbie scored a game-high 17 points to lead the Coeur d'Alene Vikings, ranked No. 1 in 5A in Idaho, past the Stanwood Spartans 61-52 in a nonleague boys basketball game Thursday night.

Senior Deon Watson scored 10 of his 13 points in the first quarter as Coeur d'Alene took a 34-16 halftime lead.

"The key to this game was Deon getting us out to a fast start," Coeur d'Alene assistant coach Bill Hughes said. "Our defensive intensity broke down in the second half and we've still got a ways to go, but the first half was the best half we've played all year."

Gage Neirinckx scored 11 points for Coeur d'Alene (2-1), which plays at Lincoln High of Tacoma tonight.

Coeur d'Alene 19 15 15 12 - 61

Stanwood 10 6 22 14 - 52

COEUR d'ALENE - Tackett 0, Roletto 2, Neirinckx 11, Loy 5, Moore 8, Higbie 17, Blakley 2, Watson 13.

STANWOOD - N. Garcea 9, Thayar 3, Roberson 11, Stang 13, Zipp 0, B. Garcea 3, Esray 4, Swenson 0, O'Donnell 0, Williams 9, Sears 0.

Post Falls 55

Bishop Manogue 46

RENO, Nev. — Luke Thoreson scored a team-high 17 points to lead the Trojans, ranked third in 5A in Idaho, past host Bishop Manogue in the Wild West Shootout on Thursday.

Marcus Colbert scored 16 points for Post Falls (4-0), which improved to 2-0 in the four-day tournament.

“I thought we made a pretty good effort defensively in the first half,” Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. “We’ve got some things to work on, but I thought Luke had a good all-around game for us tonight.”

Post Falls will face Galena High today at 4:30 p.m.

“We need to maintain a high level of play,” McLean said. “In our first four game, we’ve had some peaks and valleys. We just need to remain consistent.”

Post Falls 20 14 9 12 — 55

Bish. Manogue 11 12 10 13 — 46

POST FALLS — Davenport 0, Anderson 6, Valente 5, Thoreson 17, Jackson 2, Colbert 16, Benner 0, Hillman 5, Koski 2, Shelton 2.

BISHOP MANOGUE — Reid 23, Rogers 4, Peglia 4, Snow 0, Hallen 10, Sandoval 2, Marazzo 2, Saleno 1.

Colville 52

Lakeland 50

COLVILLE — Matt Hubbard scored 15 of his game-high 27 points in the fourth quarter, including a putback with 3.5 seconds remaining to lift the Indians past the Hawks in a nonleague game.

“Both teams played with a lot of intensity and really got after it tonight,” Lakeland coach Dave Stockwell said. “We had some stretches where our defense shut down their big guys. It was back and forth until the end of the game — they just made their last shot and ours came up short.”

Adam Black scored 13 points, Matt Horne 12, and Eric Cooper had 10 points and six rebounds for Lakeland (2-4), which travels to Pullman on Tuesday.

Lakeland 12 13 15 10 — 50

Colville 14 13 7 18 — 52

LAKELAND — Spencer 11, Peva 0, Carr 0, Derrick 0, Black 13, Stanford 0, Horne 12, Cooper 10, Simpson 2, Frank 2.

COLVILLE — J. Shoemaker 0, Murto 0, T. Holling 0, K. Holling 0, Henry 8, Vaagen 2, Lee 1, Khater 0, Hubbard 27, Pond 14.

Medical Lake 61

Timberlake 36

SPIRIT LAKE — Austin Garza scored 28 points to lead the Cardinals (2-5) past the Tigers in a nonleague game.

“Medical Lake came out and shot the ball really good in the first half,” Timberlake coach Tony Hanna said. “They just outworked us and played a good game.”

Trevor Masterson scored seven points for Timberlake (4-2), which hosts Kellogg on Saturday.

Medical Lake 20 12 13 16 — 61

Timberlake 16 5 9 6 — 36

MEDICAL LAKE — Garza 28, Wesselman 1, Butorac 6, Dunn 11, Velaquez 2, Teshome 11, Parker 2, Paulson 0.

TIMBERLAKE — Rice 3, Cronnelly 3, Masterson 7, Hayden 3, Blayne 3, Scott 4, Page 5, Allen 3, Thompson 2, Cramer 3.

Lakeside at

Mullan

No report was received from the host Tigers.

Grace Bible 55

Christian Center 51

LIBERTY LAKE — Colin Nordhausen had 18 points and eight rebounds as the Warriors beat the Lions in a Mountain Christian League game at the HUB Sports Center.

Ben Thruman scored 14 points for Grace Bible (3-3, 3-3 MCL), which faces Helena Christian at the HUB on Dec. 28.

Ransom Storm scored 19 points and Dennis Chekota 15 points for Christian Center (3-2, 3-2), which hosts St. Joseph’s tonight.

Christian Center 8 13 15 15 — 51

Grace Bible 14 6 15 20 — 55

CHRISTIAN CENTER — Storm 19, D. Chekota 15, Kondryszyn 6, Kuetemeyer 5, Yates 4, Hanson 2, M. Chekota 0, Kyle 0.

GRACE BIBLE — Nordhausen 18, Thruman 14, Collier 10, Schaefer 10, Connelly 3, Peabody 0, R. Madsen 0.