Bulldog girls tip off district tourney tonight

SANDPOINT — The long and arduous road to state will begin tonight for the Sandpoint girls basketball team, which hosts Lakeland in the opener of the 4A Region 1 basketball tournament at Les Rogers Court.

The Bulldogs (12-8) have won six of their past eight games, including a hard-fought 41-38 overtime road win over Moscow (6-10). Both teams were 3-1 in 4A North play, but because of the total points in league play tie-breaker, the Bears earned the No. 1 seed and home court advantage throughout the double-elimination tournament by a mere five points.

The No. 2 seed Bulldogs are led by junior wing Hailey Olin, a do-everything player who came up huge in the win over the Bears, senior point Jordan Speelmon, who pushes the pace and leads the team in assists, and freshman Madi Shoening, an athletic slasher who has filled up the scoring sheet with high games of 25, 19 and 17 points this season.

Nikole Alamillo, Cassie Young and Emma Liband provide a solid inside presence, while Maryah Delgado, Lily Martin and Kendra Corless provide quality minutes off the bench.

First year head coach Bill Bender likes the momentum his team is carrying into the tournament, praising the comeback win at Moscow.

“There were so many amazing story lines to the win, so many heroes throughout the comeback,” said Bender, whose team trailed by eight at half in a tough gym. “I’m not sure what will happen over the next couple of weeks but what happened Friday night in Moscow was definitely an instant classic.”

No. 3 seed Lakeland (3-16) didn’t win a league game this year, but lost to the Bulldogs by just six points in the last meeting. The winner travels to Moscow on Thursday.