6A DISTRICT 1 GIRLS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: Post Falls' Tucker lands last shot, eliminates Lake City
Coeur d'Alene Press | UPDATED 13 hours, 24 minutes AGO
JASON ELLIOTT/Press Post Falls sophomore wing Annabelle Tucker goes up for a shot as Lake City junior Courtney Johnson defends during the third quarter of Saturday's 6A District 1 loser-out game at The Arena in Post Falls.
JASON ELLIOTT/Press Lake City freshman guard Brynlee Johnston drives past the Post Falls defense for a layup in the fourth quarter of Saturday's 6A District 1 loser-out game at The Arena in Post Falls.
POST FALLS — In a game of spurts, it was Post Falls that pushed back last.
Sophomore Annabelle Tucker hit a go-ahead 3-pointer from the top of the key with 18 seconds remaining as the second-seeded Trojans beat the third-seeded Lake City Timberwolves 60-59 in a 6A District 1 loser-out game at The Arena on Saturday.
“She’d had a very strong offensive game and was feeling very confident,” first-year Post Falls coach Brian Carlson said. “As a coach, I was talking to (Post Falls assistant coach Marc) Allert about possibly calling a timeout, but Annabelle stepped in and hit a big shot. It was huge for us.”
Tucker finished with a career-high 29 points for Post Falls (8-14), which advances to a best-of-3 championship series against top-seeded Coeur d’Alene (19-2) starting Tuesday at 7 at Coeur d'Alene. Game 2 is Thursday at Post Falls, with an if-necessary game next Saturday at Coeur d’Alene High.
Freshman Brynlee Johnston scored 24 points and junior Ella Pearson added 21 points for Lake City, which finished 7-14.
Johnston scored on a layup to give Lake City at 57-50 lead with 1:53 remaining. Tucker scored six of the Trojans’ final 10 points.
“When we had our seven-point lead, we thought we needed to tighten things up defensively, and we didn’t,” third-year Lake City coach David Pratt said. “I thought we did a few things where we played well in stretches. The runs were to be expected in a playoff game and two teams that are pretty even. I felt like we had it there at the end, and we just didn’t finish it.”
“What got us back in the game was our defense,” Carlson said. “We were down with 1:30 to go, and I told them that Lake City would go up and down, and they had their little dip there, and our girls got after it on the defensive end and got three or four steals. It was just huge for us. We had huge contributions off our bench. Gracie (Glukak) didn’t play in the third quarter, but got a couple of baskets in the fourth quarter. Rylan (Morrison), she’s one of our swing players, and she had to play some big minutes and Olivia (Hollenbeck) had to move to the point guard and did a good job of getting us into our sets.”
Post Falls senior Kailey Walton, who has committed to Division II Jessup University in Rocklin, Calif., was out with a leg injury. Carlson added she is day-to-day.
“It was a huge team effort for us,” Carlson said. “We had so many huge contributions. I’m really proud of our girls. Our pressure, I told our girls that it would wear them down and it ended up being the last 1:30 of the game when we finally wore them down.”
Lake City 17 11 12 19 — 59
Post Falls 13 14 13 20 — 60
LAKE CITY — Kolden 2, Hiltenbrand 10, Pearson 21, Baltzell 2, Brouse 0, Johnston 24, Johnson 0.
POST FALLS — Hollenbeck 8, Haines-Picchione 3, Reese 8, Felix 4, Morrison 4, Johnson 2, Tucker 29, Gluhak 2.
JASON ELLIOTT/Press Lake City freshman guard Brynlee Johnston drives past the Post Falls defense for a layup in the fourth quarter of Saturday's 6A District 1 loser-out game at The Arena in Post Falls.