By Greg Lee, NWPrepsNow.com
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The Coeur d’Alene girls basketball team is playing its best, and it started this week.
Coeur d’Alene used its usual balanced scoring to pull away from visiting Lake City 59-29 in a 5A Inland Empire League game as part of the Fight for the Fish doubleheader Friday.
Now the question is: How long can the Vikings (14-2, 3-1) sustain it? More to the point: How long could their best player, senior post Sydney Williams, be out?
Williams sustained what’s believed to be a high ankle sprain midway through the third quarter. She went to the bench in obvious pain and didn’t return. The outcome was academic at that point.
After the game, Williams was wearing a protective boot.
CdA started its good play Tuesday when it routed Post Falls 69-22.
“Our kids are playing pretty (well) right now,” CdA coach Dale Poffenroth said. “Brian (Kelley, LC coach) has a good ballclub and they’re quite capable of coming out of here and going to state. He does a lot of good things with them.”
Senior point guard Sydni Parker led the way for CdA. She finished with a team-high 16 points as she made 12 of 13 free throws in the fourth quarter. She also had four assists and three steals.
The game reached the point of requiring a running clock when CdA built a 30-point lead with 3 minutes, 51 seconds remaining.
Parker had much help. Sara Chalich hit three 3-pointers to open the second half, finishing with 12 points. Williams, in limited duty, had 11 points and five rebounds and Brittany Tackett had four steals.
Poffenroth isn’t concerned that his team is peaking early. Especially not with the way his team plays defense.
“They’ve played so long (together) I don’t know if there’s any peak to them,” Poffenroth said. “They play so hard on defense and that makes such a difference. I don’t think whoever we play is used to how hard we play defense.”
CdA started fast, opening a 10-2 lead. By halftime, LC (9-8, 1-3) trailed 29-11.
“It’s overall balance,” Poffenroth said of his team’s offensive attack. “Chalich hit those three 3s in the third quarter and took whatever wind they had left in their sails away.”
