Madison holds off Vikings

On one hand the Coeur d’Alene High boys basketball team had no business having a chance to win Saturday afternoon.

Not by shooting 20 percent from 3-point range while Madison was a torrid 61 percent overall (19 of 31).

But on another hand, Coeur d’Alene had every right to have a chance at the end considering the Vikings ended up taking 27 more shots than the visiting Bobcats of Rexburg, largely because Madison committed 30 turnovers.

Madison held off a frantic late Coeur d’Alene rally as the Bobcats escaped with a 62-60 win at Elmer Jordan Court.

The Bobcats, picked to be the top 5A team from the eastern third of the state and ranked No. 5 in the first poll this week, needed most of a 12-point lead early in the fourth quarter. Jace Balls made two free throws with 4 seconds remaining to secure the win.

Following a Madison timeout, the Vikings’ Calvin Peterson scored an uncontested layup at the buzzer as the Bobcats huddled near their bench. They didn’t attempt to play defense in the waning moments because coach Bill Hawkins didn’t want his team to come anywhere close to committing a foul on a possible 3-point attempt.

Not that it probably would have mattered. CdA (1-1) misfired on most of its attempts from beyond the arc, making just 7 of 35.

CdA coach Kent Leiss thought his team showed a lack of composure. It’s an issue he felt dogged his team last year and it’s one he immediately started to address with his team in a lengthy postgame chat.

“We’re going to make some changes,” Leiss said. “I just told them that we’ve had these issues in the past and I gave them until this year to try to clean them up. So we have some composure issues that are really hurting our team, so we’re going to make some changes. I think the composure part hurt us the most today.”

The Bobcats, who opened Friday with a 58-49 win at Lake City, appeared to have things well in hand when Scott Snell made both ends of a 1-and-1 to extend Madison’s lead to 55-43 with 5:01 remaining.

But CdA found rare net at the end of two 3-pointers over the next 2 minutes. Then the Vikings did something they probably should have done more of when Austin Heleker and Nate Bligh each drove to the basket and completed three-point plays in the span of 30 seconds as CdA pulled within 57-55 with 1:16 to go.

But on the immediate inbounds pass, Bligh was called for a foul. Kory Matthews made both foul shots, making it a two-possession game with 1:15 remaining.

CdA got its final 3-pointer when Leon Duplessis hit from the top of the arc, cutting Madison’s lead to 59-58 with 23 seconds to go.

Forced to foul, CdA put Madison point guard Andrew Pena on the line for a double bonus. Pena hit the first but missed the second shot.

CdA had a chance to tie or take the lead, but a missed 3-pointer from the corner by Nate Clinton was rebounded by Balls, who made the game-clinching foul shots after he was fouled.

Pena had a team-high 18 points, and Treagan Fullmer and Snell each reached double figures with 15 and 12, respectively. Matt Hansen, who had 25 against LC, made just 1 of 5 shots but contributed a team-high 10 rebounds.

Heleker led CdA with 22 points. Bligh, who missed all six of his 3-point attempts, had 13 points and six rebounds.

“We obviously needed to do a better job of taking care of the ball,” Hawkins said. “We needed to be more patient and work our offense longer. We played into their hands. You’ve got to hand it to Coeur d’Alene. They’re an athletic team and they have unbelievable shooters from beyond the arc. They don’t have an inside game per se, but they do well finishing around the basket. That’s a tough team to play. We feel fortunate to come out of here with a win.”

Leiss said playing against a talented team like Madison and facing the variety of defenses that the Bobcats threw at the Vikings will serve his team well this season.

“We can’t duplicate some of the things that they were doing in practice,” Leiss said. “Things like the constant changing of defenses – from a matchup zone to a 2-3 zone to a man-to-man. They’re pretty dang good at all of them. It’s a great learning experience. But at the same time, I also think it was kind of embarrassing for our team that we had that lack of composure. It’s something we have to take care of in the next few weeks.”