5A REGION 1 BOYS BASKETBALL: Lake City, Coeur d'Alene to play for regional title

COEUR d’ALENE — Though his players hadn’t given him reason to worry, the coach in Jim Winger of Lake City wondered a bit about his team looking ahead Friday night.

Not to worry.

The top-seeded Lake City Timberwolves scored the game’s first 37 points, held the fourth-seeded Post Falls Trojans scoreless for the game’s first 10 minutes and rolled to a 73-33 victory in the first round of the 5A Region 1 boys basketball tournament at Lake City.

“We certainly didn’t do that,” Winger said of overlooking the opponent. “We were razor sharp in all aspects, especially defensively. We just came out of the gate very strong.”

Meanwhile, a couple miles away, the second-seeded Coeur d’Alene Vikings overcame a slow start and beat the third-seeded Lewiston Bengals 57-54 in overtime at Viking Court.

Lake City (22-0) will play host to Coeur d’Alene (15-6) on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. for the regional championship and a berth to state.

Post Falls (6-16) travels to Lewiston (14-7) on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in a loser-out game.

Lake City beat Coeur d’Alene by 25 and 37 points during Inland Empire League play.

“We're going to try to throw a few things at them, and try to do our best,” Coeur d’Alene coach Jon Adams said.

“They've got some good players and do some good things,” Winger said. “You play somebody for the third time, and it’s your rival, you’ve got to be focused, and not worry about next week — worry about Tuesday.”

Lake City 73, Post Falls 33: Lake City hit seven 3-pointers and led 31-0 after the first quarter.

Kolton Mitchell hit four 3s in the first quarter, five for the game, and scored 16 of his game-high 23 points in the opening quarter.

Zach Johnson hit two 3s, and scored eight of his 14 points in the first quarter. Nathan Hocking hit a 3 in the first quarter and finished with 11 points.

“They were going to run zone, and we’ve been very successful against zone,” Winger said. “Great first two quarters, in particular defensively — we’ve really been solid at that end of the floor, especially the last month.”

Johnson finished with eight rebounds, Mitchell six.

Alex Shields scored nine points for Post Falls.

Post Falls 0 12 10 11 — 33

Lake City 31 24 15 3 — 73

POST FALLS — Anderson 2, Ostlund 2, McLean 0, McCarthy 6, Shields 9, Cameron 0, McKeown 2, Wolfe 1, Blake 6, Bowie 2, Carver 3.

LAKE CITY — Buchanan 7, Strawn 5, Hill 0, Watson 0, Miller 7, Kiesbuy 6, Johnson 14, Mitchell 23, Snow 0, Hocking 11.

Coeur d’Alene 57, Lewiston 54, 2OT: Kruz Wheeler, who returned earlier this week after having not played since the season opener with a sports hernia, scored on a driving layup to give the Vikings the lead early in the second overtime.

He then came up with a steal late, and hit 1 of 2 free throws to help put the game away.

“He’s very talented, very athletic, very strong, very physical,” Adams said of Wheeler. “It’s taking a while for the other kids to get used to playing with him. That was the ugliest first half of basketball we’ve played all year. As the game went on, he progressively got better, and made the plays at the end. I was very proud of him.”

Steven Burgess made 3 of 6 3-pointers and led all scorers with 19 points for the Vikings, who lost junior guard Logan Orchard for the season recently with a fractured thumb. Alexander Nipp scored 12 of his 13 points in the second half.

Gunnar Larson hit two 3s and scored all eight of his points in the first quarter. He also earned praise from Adams for his defense on Lewiston guard Carson Way.

Coeur d’Alene beat Lewiston by eight and 14 points during league play.

Jordan Bramlet led Lewiston with 13 points.

Lewiston 9 13 15 15 2 0 — 54

Coeur d’Alene 12 14 19 7 2 3 — 57

LEWISTON — Gomez 3, Way 8, Bramlet 13, Mader 0, White 4, Wren 11, Hottinger 6, Lawrence 9.

COEUR d’ALENE — Larson 8, Nipp 13, Entzi 0, Kr. Wheeler 7, Burgess 19, Symons 8, Ka. Wheeler 1.