Bulldog girls fall to Lakeland in regional action
RATHDRUM — Forced to play catchup from the early going, the Sandpoint Bulldogs were unable to do so, and lost 49-36 to the Lakeland Hawks in the semifinals of the 4A Region 1 girls basketball tournament Tuesday night at Hawk Court.
"They just outplayed us," Sandpoint coach Jim Alsager said. "The first half, we looked a step slow."
Sandpoint (8-14) plays Moscow (0-21) tonight at 7 in a loser-out game. The winner travels to Lakeland (6-14) on Thursday for the championship game, needing to beat Lakeland twice to go to state. The if-necessary game would be played on Saturday for the region's lone berth to state.
"We're on the NBA schedule now," Alsager said.
Sophomore reserve Kortney James scored a team-high 10 points for Sandpoint, which committed 26 turnovers to 20 for Lakeland. Lynn DiBenedetto had six rebounds for the Bulldogs.
Camille Reynolds scored a game-high 18 for Lakeland, which jumped out to a 10-4 lead after one quarter and were never headed. Sandpoint, which shot 14 of 44 from the field, pulled as close as six points in the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs were 4 of 12 from the free throw line.
"I thought a key was rebounding in the first half," Alsager said. "We were playing man-to-man the first half and they outboarded us."
Sandpoint 4 12 9 11 — 36
Lakeland 10 13 9 17 — 49
SANDPOINT — Oakley 6, Johnson 7, Windju 0, Guercio 7, Tenuto 0, James 10, DiBenedetto 4, Thomas 2.
LAKELAND — B. Stecker 0, Whitted 10, Quillin 0, Imthurn 2, Reynolds 18, Biggs 0, E. Stecker 12, Rucker 2, App 5, Watson 0.
? Hess leads Clark Fork past Mullan
CLARK FORK — Megan Hess scored a game-high 17 points, Bailey Hewitt added 14 and Shaina Gustafson 12 to lead Clark Fork over Mullan 59-29 Tuesday night in a 1A District playoff game in Clark Fork.
The Cats (11-9) jumped out to a 36-10 halftime lead in the blowout win. Mandy Martin, Hannah Hurt and Amy Gannon added four apiece for the Cats.
Clark Fork plays No. 1 Kootenai today at 6 p.m. in the 1A district opener at Timberlake High School.