Lakeside boys 'kinda' the older group now'

Unlike that other pretty good team in the region, the Lakeside High boys basketball team didn’t get jumped in the rankings this week.

The Knights (10-0) remain No. 1 in 1A Division II in the state media poll for the second straight week.

Not that the players and coaches at the Plummer-Worley school are concerned with that kind of stuff anyhow.

“No, not really,” Lakeside coach James Twoteeth said. “I tell my team not to look at that kind of stuff. We just focus on winning games, one game at a time.”

THAT THE Knights are doing this year.

They have won their first 10 games by an average of 41 points. Only two wins have been by 11 or fewer points — an overtime victory at a tournament in Pendleton, Ore., and a 47-36 victory over nemesis Genesis Prep on Tuesday night.

Each of the last two seasons, Lakeside has been good enough to go to state and contend for a trophy, finishing 12-9 and then 14-8.

Only problem — just one team advances out of District 1 to state — the winner of the district championship game.

In both years in the district title game, Lakeside was able to keep up with Genesis Prep for part of the game, but the Jaguars’ depth — and the Knights’ lack of depth — was a factor as the games wore on, and Genesis Prep advanced to state both years. The Jaguars’ bid for a third straight state title game up short last year, and Genesis Prep settled for third.

Twoteeth, in his third season as Lakeside coach, said his team has a little more depth this year.

“And I think we’re in way better condition this year,” Twoteeth said.

STABILITY IS a big factor in Lakeside’s success of late.

When Twoteeth took over as head coach in 2017, he was the Knights’ seventh coach in seven seasons. They’ve only been to state once since 2005 — and that was in 2015, when they won the North Star League and district title in the final season before Genesis Prep joined the league.

But it’s not that Lakeside has been bad during that stretch — more like unfortunate. The Knights had five winning seasons during that 10-year gap between state trips.

Four years in a row, Lakeside lost to Wallace in a district play-in game to a state play-in game. The next four seasons, the Knights lost in state play-in games — the first three years to Clearwater Valley.

Twoteeth was a senior on the 1997 Lakeside team that won the state A-4 title — the Knights’ only state title in boys hoops. His son, Talon, is a junior and a three-year varsity member.

Three Knights — Darren “Day Day” Higgins, Jayson “JJ” Hall and Kenyon Spotted Horse — have played key roles on the team since their freshman year.

Now they’re among a group of seven juniors. Talon Twoteeth is one of just two seniors.

Next year, Lakeside will move up to 1A Division I.

“The first two years we took our bumps and bruises,” James Twoteeth said. “We were getting beat by the older group, and now we’re kind of the older group.”

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.