STATE 5A GIRLS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: Fast-starting Hawks roll past Columbia in state opener

By JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writer

MERIDIAN — Life comes at you fast.

Lakeland, it just gets in your face and wreaks havoc.

In that 12 minutes spanning the final moments of the first quarter to halftime, the top-seeded Lakeland Hawks left no doubt why they’re perched on the top of the rankings at the state 5A basketball tournament.

Lakeland outscored Columbia of Nampa 40-5 in the final 12 minutes of the half to take a 42-10 halftime lead, and the Hawks of Rathdrum went on to beat the Wildcats 72-28 in an opening-round game at Mountain View High on Thursday.

Freshman Jaeli Hoffman had 19 points and 11 rebounds, including 17 points and 10 rebounds in the first half, for Lakeland (19-4), including her team's first seven points. 

“I was focused on the game and focused on winning,” Hoffman said. “My shot felt good in warmups and my teammates were on as well. There’s going to be some nerves obviously, but we just calmed down and had each other.”

Columbia (14-9) went up 5-2 on a 3-pointer by Gabby Nabors with 3:34 remaining in the first quarter.

“We’ve been in this position before,” second-year Lakeland coach Caelyn Caulfield said. “We knew going into it the first few minutes were going to be weird, just because it’s state and all the nerves and that. I don’t let them get worried and they just keep that confidence.”

Hoffman had 10 points in the second quarter for Lakeland.

“That girl, she continues to impress me with her composure out there,” Caulfield said. “We’ve told her, ‘you’ve got the green light’ and just go do well and play free. When she’s playing like that, she’s lights out.”

Junior Presley Fagan scored 21 points, all in the final three quarters for Lakeland, which shot 31 of 63 from the field and held Columbia to 12 of 50.

“We just started working as a team,” said Fagan, whose team outscored Columbia 27-3 in the second quarter to put the game out of reach. “Once we locked in and started playing together as a team, we started hitting shots.”

“We just told her she’s good, but she knew, quit fouling,” Caulfield said. “We just told her to keep shooting.”

Both teams had 15 turnovers in the game.

“We knew we were going to be able to speed them up,” Hoffman said. “We did a good job of slowing things down and just playing our game.”

Lakeland will face Pocatello (17-7) in the semifinals today at 11 a.m. PST at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa. The Hawks beat the Thunder 63-47 in the East Idaho Holiday Shootout in December in Idaho Falls on Dec. 31. Lakeland is bidding for its first state title game appearance since 2002, when the Hawks won the second of back-to-back titles. 

“We’ve been telling them if you take that ball hard and you don’t have anyone, we’ve got four others ready to go,” Caulfield said. “They have an attack mentality, but also knowing you can set the table for someone else, that’s been our thing throughout the season.”

Lakeland is in the semifinals at the big arena for the second time in its last two state appearances — the other coming two years ago. 

“It’s hard to say it’s another game, knowing one of the opponents we’ve played before,” Caulfield said. “We’re a different team, and they’re different team. If I try to get into their heads about it, then we’ll be thinking about it instead of playing our game.”

Nabors and Bailey Robertson scored 10 points each for Columbia (14-9), which faces Jerome (15-9) in a loser-out game today at Mountain View High.

Columbia    7    3    14    4    —    28

Lakeland    15    27    17    13    —    72

COLUMBIA – Battleson 3, Robertson 10, McEntee 0, Wilson 2, Quezada 0, Whitworth 10, Nabors 1, Baker 0, Lincoln 0, Guevara 0, Kartchner 0. Totals 12-50 1-2 28.

LAKELAND – Kar. Kiefer 10, Forsman 0, Bowie 4, Hoffman 19, McMurray 0, Kap. Kiefer 1, Fagan 21, Bretveld 6, Bullington 11. Totals 31-63 3-8 72.

    JASON DUCHOW PHOTOGRAPHY Lakeland sophomore Anabel Bowie pulls down a rebound in a crowd of Columbia players during the second half of Thursday's state 5A girls basketball tournament game at Mountain View High in Meridian.