STATE 6A BOYS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: Lake City D's the 3

By MARK NELKE 

Sports editor 

NAMPA — Timberline of Boise likes to shoot 3-pointers. 

Lake City tried to make sure the Wolves didn’t make very many of them. 

The third-seeded Timberwolves harassed sixth-seeded Timberline into 6-of-28 shooting from behind the arc, and were rewarded with a 48-37 victory in the first round of the state 6A boys basketball tournament Thursday night at the Ford Idaho Center. 

“What a defensive effort from our kids,” third-year Lake City coach James Anderson said. “They (the Wolves) like to shoot a lot of 3s, and these guys did a pretty good job. A lot of the ones they shot were pretty high-level difficulty; we probably blocked three of them.”  

Lake City (17-8) will play second-seeded Centennial (21-3) of Boise in the semifinals tonight at 6:30 PST. Centennial beat Capital of Boise 71-53. 

Junior Jordan Carlson carried much of the offensive load for Lake City, scoring a game-high 23 points.  

Senior Jackson Bowman added 11 points as the only other T-Wolf in double figures. But Lake City’s defensive stopper was just as big, if not bigger, on the other end, as he was the primary defender in holding Timberline senior Collin Morris, who came in averaging 18.3 points per game, to just 11 points on 5-of-13 shooting, including 1 of 8 from deep. 

"Just trying to bog him down,” the 6-foot-3 Bowman said. “He’s 6-7, tall, it made him hard to guard. Just making sure to get up into him, and use my speed to clog him up. I’ve guarded a lot of guys like that, so I’m used to it. These guys helped me out a lot; it’s hard to get through all those screens.” 

"Oh, gosh, the amount of guys that he’s had to guard,” Anderson said. “He has so much experience guarding those types of guys. It’s awfully nice to have a point-of-attack defender like that. The list is crazy, the guys we’ve put him on the last two years. Unbelieveable defender; does it at an elite level. It’s a thankless job, and he’s a tough kid, man.” 

Carlson, who reached the 1,000-point mark in career scoring earlier this season, hit 9 of 17 from the field — the rest of the T-Wolves were a combined 9 of 27. 

Carlson scored 12 of Lake City’s first 19 points, including a spin move in the post that led to a dunk. 

"Just really taking advantage of the situations I was put in,” the 6-7 Carlson said. “Teammates did a good job of delivering the ball when I was in those advantages.” 

"He’s pretty tall, and we don’t have the size to contest that all the time,” eighth-year Timberline coach Travis Noble said. “I didn’t feel like we got off to a good start on him, with him hitting the first 3 of the game. That got him into a pretty good flow. He’s a solid player, and we knew we would have to do a pretty good job on him.” 

With just over 3 minutes left in the third quarter, Carlson’s steal led to a dunk by senior Josh Watson for a 29-21 Lake City lead.  

But Carlson picked up his third foul moments later and sat down, and Timberline (16-10) finished off an 8-0 run to tie it. 

Just as bad for the T-Wolves, Watson suffered a sprained ankle late in the quarter, though he returned in the fourth quarter — Lake City figuring it was better to keep him out there rather than let him stiffen up on the bench. He finished with five points and six boards. 

Carlson returned with the score tied, and his baby hook gave Lake City a 31-29 lead after three quarters. 

The Timberwolves opened the fourth quarter on an 8-0 run — a drive by Bowman, a 3 by Jackson Anderson and an inside bucket by the hobbling Watson — part of a 16-3 run that put the game away. 

"All of the momentum was against us, and you see your starting center go down,” James Anderson said. “And then for these dudes to turn around and built that (lead) back up, and dig in on defense. And JC (Carlson), huge baskets. You can’t win unless you can respond to big runs.” 

Timberline was 2 of 12 from deep in the first half, then hit three 3s in the third quarter when the Wolves tied it up. But Timberline was just 4 of 16 from behind the arc in the second half. 

Kole Hudson, out since Jan. 23 with an injury, returned and hit 4 of 10 3s and led Timberline with 14 points. Morris finished with eight rebounds. 

"They were more physical than we were; that’s the bottom line,” Noble said. “They were switching hard, jumping out on our 3-point shooters. Just over-pressuring us, and we had a hard time with that. That’s been our M.O. all year; if we shoot it well, we’re pretty good. Credit to Lake City; they were long, they were athletic ... I think we were hurried, we were rushed on a lot of those.” 

Timberline     12    4    13    8    —    37 

Lake City     9    13    9    17    —    48 

TIMBERLINE — Caldwell 0, Hudson 14, Focarile 1, Bates 2, Scudder 0, Ingram 0, Morris 11, Hall 0, Richins 9. Totals 15-46 1-3 37. 

LAKE CITY — Williams 0, Winey 0, Plummer 0, Frazier 0, Carlson 23, Watson 5, Bowman 11, Anderson 6, Pearson 3, Irgens 0. Totals 18-44 8-12 48. 

    JASON DUCHOW PHOTOGRAPHY Lake City senior Josh Watson extends to grab the ball over Timberline's Benton Bates during Thursday's state 6A boys basketball opening round game at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.
  

    JASON DUCHOW PHOTOGRAPHY Lake City senior guard Jackson Bowman drives to the basket as Timberline senior JD Focarile defends during the second half of Thursday's state 6A boys basketball opening round game at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa. Lake City defeated Timberline 48-37 to advance to the semifinals tonight at 6 PST against Centennial High of Boise.