What a start!
MARK NELKE | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 13 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, 2011 8:00 PM
COEUR d'ALENE - It was as impressive as it was stunning.
Fourth-ranked Coeur d'Alene High scored the game's first 20 points and went on to rout fifth-ranked and visiting Lake City 63-42 in the second-place game of the 5A Region 1 girls basketball tournament Friday night before an estimated 1,200 at Elmer Jordan Court to earn a trip to state.
"I think it's the best game we've played all year," said Coeur d'Alene junior point guard Kyeli Parker, who finished with 14 points, four rebounds, three assists and four steals. "We were just trying to be more patient and overload one side and take our shots - not force it to Carli."
Coeur d'Alene (18-5), the three-time defending state champion, will take on Boise (19-4) in the first round at state Thursday at 7 p.m. PST at the Idaho Center in Nampa. Boise lost to Centennial (23-0) 61-58 in the District 3 title game Friday night.
Lake City, which lost at Lewiston on a basket at the buzzer in the regional title game on Tuesday, finished 16-7.
After losing to Lake City and its packed-in zone 41-35 in the first round last Friday, Coeur d'Alene made some adjustments - overloading one side, and not cutting through the zone, which tended to clog things up. It also helped that the Vikings made some shots, and they dominated the boards.
Carli Rosenthal scored on back-to-back putbacks to open the game, and Kendalyn Brainard fed Caelyn Orlandi for a 3-pointer and a quick 7-0 lead just over 2 minutes in, forcing a Lake City timeout.
Brainard followed with a 3-point play, Rosenthal hit back-to-back baskets and Brainard sank a baseline jumper to make it 16-0, forcing another Lake City timeout with 2:38 left in the quarter.
Heather Baughman’s steal led to a basket by Parker, and Orlandi scored in the lane with 31 seconds left in the quarter to complete the 20-0 run.
“They listened to the adjustments we made,” Coeur d’Alene coach Dale Poffenroth said. “We took our time with our passes. Shoot your shot when the time comes. Take your time, and when you find the shot you want, shoot it.”
“We needed to loosen up and play our game,” said Baughman, a senior. “I just decided this could have been my last game, and I needed to pick it up a notch.”
Lake City might not have scored in the first quarter, if not for an inadvertent whistle while Coeur d’Alene was shooting that gave the Timberwolves the ball on the alternating possession. Gina Mitchell hit a 3-pointer with one second left to make it 20-3 at the quarter.
Lake City, which last went to state two years ago, went 1 for 6 from the field in the first quarter and committed six turnovers.
“We got buried from the start,” Lake City coach Royce Johnston said. “Take a look at the rebounding; we got killed on the offensive boards in the first five minutes of the game. We gave up 14 offensive rebounds in the first half. When you bury yourself like that, it’s almost insurmountable against a quality team like Coeur d’Alene.”
Coeur d’Alene outrebounded Lake City 39-18, including 20-4 on the offensive boards.
Rosenthal, despite being surrounded by T-Wolves in the post, finished with 14 points and 16 rebounds — eight on the offensive end.
“It’s actually kind of frustrating at first,” Rosenthal said. “In practice we put three people on me so in the game it’s not as bad. We just try to move the ball around so at least one girl will get off me.”
Orlandi scored 12 of her game-high 15 points in the first half.
Lake City pulled within 24-10 on a driving layin by Katie Rowe with 6 minutes left in the half, only to see Coeur d’Alene open it back up to 35-13 on Rosenthal’s 3-point play with 1:40 left in the half.
Coeur d’Alene opened up a 25-point lead midway through the third quarter. Lake City got it to within 51-35 late in the quarter on Jansen Butler’s banked-in 3, but the T-Wolves could not make a run in the fourth quarter.
Sydney Butler led Lake City with 13 points, and Rowe added 11 points and nine rebounds.
“I don’t think it was a hangover from Tuesday,” Johnston said. “We gave it our all to win, we just got buried from the start. We seemed a little uptight offensively. They made a few adjustments to our zone, but more than anything, they just shot with confidence on their home court.”
Lake City 3 17 15 7 — 42
Coeur d’Alene 20 21 10 12 — 63
LAKE CITY — J. Butler 6, S. Butler 13, Jackson 0, Kacalek 2, Lewis 0, Rowe 11, Ball 2, Kerr 1, Mitchell 7, Heidenreich 0.
COEUR d’ALENE — Baughman 4, Sumner 0, Chalich 0, Orlandi 15, C. Williams 3, K. Parker 14, Legel 3, Petit 0, Rosenthal 14, S. Parker 0, Brainard 8, S. Williams 2.
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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.”