Big second half Lewiston spurt helps defeat SHS

LEWISTON - The Sandpoint boys basketball team hung in with Lewiston for the first 16 minutes. The Bengals held a 32-25 lead heading into the locker room.

But Lewiston (16-5, 6-3) went on to double Sandpoint (5-15, 1-7) in the first half en route to an 80-54 Inland Empire League victory.

“I can’t complain,” Sandpoint boys basketball coach Brian Childs said. “We hung in there with a really good Lewiston team and that’s all you can really ask for.”

After halftime, the Bulldogs’ offense was slowed down by the Bengals. It only managed to score 29 points.

Childs said that the final score wasn’t necessarily a good way to show how it played on Tuesday.

“We hung in there for about three quarters with a really good team,” Childs said. “We just need to start limiting mistakes.”

The second half was when Lewiston started to get rolling. They scored over 20 points in both the third and fourth quarters.

Sandpoint made mistakes offensively and Lewiston would capitalize on it.

“They had us at arms length for the most part,” Childs said. “They were able to capitalize on the things that we did wrong and that’s what good basketball teams do.”

Despite losing by 24 points, Childs said that the final score doesn’t tell the whole story.

“We got some breaks and we hung in there and played tough,” Childs said. “This was a big bounce back after Lake City, at least competitively wise.”

The Bulldogs fell to the T-Wolves 76-23 on Feb. 11.

Childs also praised Lewiston’s depth.

“They have seven or eight guys that can just score at any moment,” Childs said. “When you can get multiple double-digit scorers a night, that’s how you end up with 80 points.”

Sandpoint next plays St. Maries, who is the highest ranked team in the 2A at 7 p.m. on Friday.

The Bulldogs have a tough end-of-the season schedule. They’ve had to play Lake City, Lewiston and Coeur d’alene. Now, they have to travel and face the defending 2A state champions.

“Well, you hope this prepares you for districts,” Childs said. “A lot of the 4A teams got scheduled 5A teams to close the season, so we’re not alone and we’ve been going through other things that make it difficult for us.”

Sandpoint has gone through kids being sick and injuries, but with the strength of schedule down the stretch it should toughen up the Bulldogs for its run at districts.

Ethan Butler and Jacob Eldridge led Sandpoint scorers with 14 points.

Chanse Eke paced the Bengals with a game-high 23 points.Drew Hottinger added 10.

Sandpoint 10 15 15 14 - 54

Lewiston 15 17 22 26 - 80

Sandpoint

Eldridge 14, VanDenBerg 0, Dunkel 0, Dickinson 2, Childs 2, Lane 5, Bopp 0, Butler 14.

Lewiston

Eke 23, McKarcher 5, Way 2, Hepburn 6, A. Hottinger 9, Forsman 7, Wren 6, Lawrence 2, White 8, D. Hottinger 10.