It's on! Lake City set to play Owyhee tonight

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

Thanks to a healthy dumping of snow, the high school boys matchup many Idaho fans have been hoping to see is scheduled to take place tonight:

Lake City (2-0) vs. defending state 5A champion Owyhee (1-0) of Meridian, at 6 p.m. at North Idaho College, as part of the inaugural Nike Northwest Invitational.

Owyhee was originally scheduled to play Rainier Beach of Seattle tonight, and Lake City was slated to play North Central of Spokane.

But administrators at three of the competing schools, all in western Washington — Rainier Beach, Foss of Tacoma, and Lynden — decided Friday to pull their teams out of the event, not wanting to risk sending them across Snoqualmie Pass, which has had at least two major closures this week due to multi-vehicle accidents.

Coeur d’Alene, scheduled to play Foss, will instead play North Central at 4 p.m., followed by Lake City vs. Owyhee at 6.

Games will be played with a 35-second shot clock, rather than 24 seconds as originally scheduled.

Lake City and Owyhee, a second-year school, were on course to meet in last year’s state title game, but the Timberwolves were upset in the first round.

Owyhee beat Rocky Mountain of Meridian 71-30 in its season opener Thursday.

“It’s awesome,” Lake City coach Jim Winger said of the matchup. “Why not play? Looking forward to it … I just think it’s a great deal all the way around for everybody.”

The Owyhee team was traveling north in two vans on Friday morning, somewhere near Baker, Ore., when Storm head coach Andy Harrington, who was driving one of the vans, got a call from tourney organizers.

Rainier Beach wasn’t going to make it over to North Idaho, because of the weather, he was told. Would you want to play Lake City instead?

“Let’s do it,” Harrington said. “The big thing for us is playing the best teams that we can possibly play, and that’s why we took this game. … I know that everyone wanted that matchup last year, like I know the guys in our locker room did, and the guys in their locker room did. It’s going to be a great game, and it’s good for the state of Idaho. … may as well play.”

Winger said when Lake City learned Owyhee was coming north for this event, the T-Wolves inquired about playing the Storm in an additional game while they were up here, but were told Owyhee’s schedule was full.

“We both have really good teams; why not play?” Winger said.

Lapwai, the two-time defending state 1A Division I champion, lost out on playing in what was originally a four-game event when Lynden chose to cancel.

In the first version of the event’s schedule, Lake City was slated to play Garfield of Seattle. But Garfield, in the midst of hiring an interim head coach, didn’t think it best to travel to this event, organizers said. So Foss was added, and slated to play Coeur d’Alene, which was to play North Central. The matchups were switched so Lake City would play North Central.

Now Coeur d’Alene is scheduled to play North Central again — and Lake City and Owyhee finally get to meet on the basketball court.

“It’s funny how this thing’s been one way, then another way, then another way, and now it finally all came together,” Winger said, “which is great for everybody involved.”

Admission is $10 for adults or $5 for seniors and students with a student ID.

Games are scheduled to be live-streamed on NIC’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/@NICAthletics/streams

NIC’s men are scheduled to play the Gonzaga club team tonight at 8.

Admission for those who only wish to attend the NIC game will be $5 for adults or $3 for seniors and students with a student ID. NIC Booster Club passes and/or canned food items will be accepted in lieu of payment.