SANDPOINT - Poor free throw shooting by Sandpoint and a potent one-two scoring punch by Moscow were key factors in the Bears' 79-70 win over the Bulldogs in a 4A Inland Empire League clash Saturday night at Les Rogers Court.

Nick Ellison, a 6-foot-7 post who recently turned down UNLV to sign to play football next fall at Eastern Washington, poured in a game-high 32 points to lead Moscow (7-9, 4-0 4A IEL), doing the bulk of his damage with a deadly mid-range jumper.

Jack Akey added 15 points, hitting several big baskets and gaining the respect of Bulldogs head coach Tyler Haynes in the process.

"When it was crunch time, Akey really stepped up," said Haynes. "If I woke up this morning and the basketball gods said we were going to get to 70, I would have liked our chances."

Sandpoint senior shooting guard Jeremiah Gagnon hit five 3-pointers en route to a 29-point night in defeat. Gagnon has scored 57 points in the last two games, pushing his average over 20 for the season.

Matthew Burgstahler added nine points, six rebounds and five assists for the Bulldogs (8-9, 0-3 4A IEL), who struggled at the free throw line, making just 9 of 24 attempts. The Bulldogs closed to within two late in the third quarter, but could never get closer down the stretch.

"I'm proud of my team," said Haynes, who feels his team can still improve before regionals. "It's all about building right now."

Sandpoint hosts Lake City on Tuesday.

Moscow 17 19 15 28 - 79

Sandpoint 14 16 17 23 - 70

MOSCOW - Ellison 32, Akey 15, Gresch 11, Martin 5, Verlin 5, Niehenke 7, Gorton 2, Davis 2.

SANDPOINT - Jurenka 3, Rodriguez 5, Spalding 6, Kuzmich 0, Schwartz 9, Edwards 2, Burgstahler 9, Gagnon 29, Collado 7.

Lake City 75

Lewiston 36

COEUR d'ALENE - Senior point guard Justin Pratt hit four 3-pointers and scored 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting as the host Timberwolves wrapped up the No. 2 seed to the 5A Region 1 tournament with the 5A Inland Empire League victory over the Bengals.

"Justin probably played his best game of the year," Lake City assistant coach Kelly Reed said. "He was fantastic, shot the 3 well, penetrated ... Justin was awesome tonight."

Lake City (13-5), ranked third in this week's 5A media poll, hit 22 of 28 (78.6 percent) from the field in the first half in building a 51-11 halftime lead.

"It's been a while since we started well, and we got off to a great start," Reed said. "I think we had more energy to start than we've shown, for whatever reason. We moved the ball well, and it led to easy baskets ... and the bench play was outstanding as well."

Jacob Dahl added 11 points, Kyle Guice had nine points and six rebounds, and Tucker Louie-McGee had seven assists for Lake City, which visits Sandpoint on Tuesday.

Jaydan Kaufman scored 14 points for Lewiston (5-14, 0-5).

Lewiston 4 7 18 7 - 36

Lake City 22 29 11 13 - 75

LEWISTON - Urquhart 0, Stamper 0, Kaufman 14, Hewett 0, Carter 8, Berlik 7, Whitlock 7, Ulrich 0, Sager 0.

LAKE CITY - Adams 4, Pratt 22, Louie-McGee 5, Vetsch 7, Guice 9, Turner 2, Dahl 11, Winger 2, Mitchell 8, Hancock 5.

Orofino 47

Lakeside 36

OROFINO - Kalob Turner scored 18 points to lead the Maniacs (10-6) past the Knights in a nonleague game.

"We didn't play well in the first half, but had a couple of good runs in the first and second quarter," Lakeside coach Chris Dohrman said. "We didn't have a good third quarter and were really playing catchup the entire fourth quarter and could never fill the gap. We had a bad shooting night from inside and outside, and just didn't score baskets like we have been the last couple of weeks."

Joe Brown scored 18 points for Lakeside (14-4), which travels to Clark Fork on Tuesday.

Lakeside 15 7 3 11 - 36

Orofino 14 10 10 13 - 47

LAKESIDE - Stensgar 0, Pluff 3, Meshell 6, Schatz 0, Kolar 7, Nilson 6, Brown 14.

OROFINO - Wilson 2, Judd 3, K. Brink 2, Turner 18, Lee 8, M. Brink 1, Kelso 7, Kuykendall 6.

The Oaks 58

N.I. Christian 40

SPOKANE VALLEY - After starting out strong in the first half, North Idaho Christian was on the short end of a 15-5 run in the third quarter in falling to the host The Oaks in the Mountain Christian League championship game at Valley Fourth Church.

Paul Connelly scored 16 points, John Connelly 10 for North Idaho Christian, which finished 16-8. Jeremiah Chersin had eight rebounds.

Eric Ansett scored 20 for The Oaks (21-0).

N.I. Christian 15 9 5 11 - 40

The Oaks 12 12 15 19 - 58

NORTH IDAHO CHRISTIAN - Booth 4, P. Connelly 16, J. Connelly 10, Jesensky 3, Chersin 2, Stedman 2, Schreibeis 2, Burke 1, Gabrielson 0.

THE OAKS - Ansett 20, N. Potter 3, Yates 7, Fisher 11, T. Potter 4, Kim 6, Gray 7.

VIKINGS

from B1

going to make this one' and he's a senior, so I expect him to make it and that's exactly what he did. He's our senior leader, he really is."

Post Falls had the last shot of the game, with 2 seconds left. But junior guard Nick Hall could not connect on a 3-pointer at the top of the key.

After Dalton Thompson dribbled the ball off of a Viking player's foot, Hall picked it up and fired away, but the ball was slightly off to the left for an airball. Shortly after the buzzer sounded, several Coeur d'Alene students ran onto the court to celebrate with the Vikings.

With 38 seconds left, Hall tied the game at 48 by drilling a corner 3. He led all scorers with 19 points, 10 in the second half.

"Nick was forced to take a desperation shot," Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. "He was just trying to make a play. It wasn't the smoothest transition between Dalton and Nick, but it definitely wasn't either of their fault. The (original) play was for Nick to go hard to the basket and if he's not open, Dalton was going to take the shot."

With 6:29 left in the game, Trojan backup guard Luke Anderson, who scored 11 points, drained a 3 to put Post Falls ahead, 37-36, for its first lead of the game. With 4:36 left, Coeur d'Alene took its final lead of the game, on a lay-in by junior forward Tony Naccarato, to make it 41-39 Vikings.

Lundblad said he enjoyed watching the balanced efforts, both offensively and defensively, of the Vikings, who shot 18 for 44 from the field and 7 for 15 from the free-throw line. Devin Kluss scored 14 points and Tony Naccarato added 13.

"I thought it was the total team package tonight," Lundblad said. "Everybody played hard and everybody contributed and we had some moments where we didn't execute offensively, started to get into a little one-on-one. But I thought we played really well."

Post Falls, which trailed 26-21 at halftime, was 9 for 28 from the field in the first half and 18 for 51 in the game.

"We knew whether you win or lose, we'll have to beat the same teams during regionals," McLean said. "Coeur d'Alene made enough plays to win. We took some ill-advised shots in the first half and we didn't score enough in the lane."

Proceeds from the ticket sales and food and drinks sold all went to a foundation that will help pay for the medical costs of Coeur d'Alene football coach Shawn Amos and Post Falls football coach Jeff Hinz, both of whom were recently diagnosed with cancer. A total of more than $9,000 was raised.

Amos has been battling Hodgkin's lymphoma and Hinz has been recovering from non-smoker's adenocarcinoma in his left hip.

Both teams' coaches wore black T-shirts with white letterhead that read, 'Tackle Cancer', with the names of Hinz and Amos on them. Both coaches attended Saturday's game.

Coeur d'Alene plays two straight nonleague games at home this week to wrap up its regular season. On Thursday, it will play Moscow and the Vikings will play Saturday against Sandpoint.

Post Falls will play Friday at Lewiston in a 5A IEL game to wrap up its regular season.

Post Falls 6 15 10 17 - 48

Coeur d'Alene 14 12 10 13 - 49

POST FALLS - Thompson 4, Pfennigs 1, Koski 4, Hall 19, McCullough 2, McKeown 0, Hillman 7, Anderson 11.

COEUR d'ALENE - T. Naccarato 13, Kluss 14, Paulsen 3, Daniels 9, Carpenter 7, Hicks 2, Williams 1.