Lake City prevails
The Lake City High girls basketball team gave new meaning to the phrase “scared stiff” Tuesday.
The Timberwolves finally began to loosen up when they realized the possibility of their season ending prematurely.
Lake City outscored the Bengals 21-10 the final 10 minutes as the T-Wolves escaped with a 49-38 victory over upset-minded Lewiston in a 5A Region I tournament loser-out opener at LC.
The T-Wolves (13-7) will take on Inland Empire League champion and top-seeded Coeur d’Alene (17-3) in a best-of-3 series to decide the region’s automatic state berth. Game 1 is Friday at Elmer Jordan Court.
From coach to player, the T-Wolves were relieved to put Tuesday behind them.
“The loser-out game does weird things to your head,” explained LC coach Darren Taylor. “I thought we never really cut it loose at all. We were tentative on everything we did. We were tentative on defense and we were tentative on the fastbreak. We pulled it out when we had lanes and possible layins. And we didn’t attack when we had numbers. It was poor decision making all night long.”
Not coincidentally, LC’s awakening began just as junior reserve post Renee Bordelon checked in offensively. Bordelon, who has become sort of a Bengals killer this season, scored all 13 of her team-high points in the game’s final 8:58.
Bordelon scored 36 points in LC’s three wins against Lewiston.
“She made it tough for us two of the three times we played,” Lewiston first-year coach Pat Teichmer said of Bordelon. “We wanted to have somebody besides their shooters beat us. Bordelon stepped up. Even though I knew she didn’t start, she’s the one who bothered me more than any because she plays that baseline out of (Taylor’s offense) so well. She floats and they go post-to-post action really well with her. You’ve got to give up something (defensively). We were trying to take everything and for a while we did.”
Bordelon had 11 points in the fourth quarter on two baskets and 7-of-8 shooting from the free-throw line. Her first basket came when she sealed off her defender in the post and took a nice entry pass from Georgia Burke. Bordelon’s second basket came as she finished a fastbreak. She added four of LC’s five free throws in the final 1:33 to expand a 44-38 lead to the final margin.
Bordelon began putting Tuesday’s game behind her as she thought about a fourth game against CdA. The Viks won both league games by 12-point margins, but LC bounced back to win the non-league Fight for the Fish game 46-44.
“We’re really ready for Friday,” Bordelon said. “I think we can beat them in two. There are a lot of predictions (that CdA will win), but we really don’t care about that.”
Bordelon had some help inside. Senior post Kristi Tuntland added 10 points and blocked three shots while senior Lauren Stern, who didn’t attempt a shot from the field, finished with a team-high six rebounds.
Tuntland said it dawned on her with the score tied 22-22 at halftime that LC needed to snap out of its petrified state.
“I was concerned,” Tuntland said. “I was in the locker room and it kind of hit me ‘this could be the end of our season.’ But you really can’t think like that because we had another half to play. We had to finish it.”