Hawks down Bulldogs in championship

COEUR d’ALENE —Matthew Timothy scored 10 points to lead Sandpoint, but an ice cold first half was too much to overcome, as the Bulldogs season ended with a 38-29 loss to Lakeland on Wednesday night in the 4A Region 1 championship game at North Idaho College.

The No.2 seed Bulldogs (8-14) scored just nine points in the first two quarters, and trailed 22-9 at halftime.

Slader Ray scored 13 and Tyrel Derrick nine for the Hawks (16-6), as the Bulldogs’ defense was solid all night, but one again scoring was tough to come by.

“We just struggled to score, and we did all year,” Bulldogs head coach Kent Leiss said. “But I thought our kids played real hard; we held a 4A team to 38 points. We just had trouble scoring.”

Sandpoint tried just about everything defensively — man to man, then triangle-and-two, box and one, you name it — in an attempt to slow down Derrick and the Hawks. It worked to a degree, but Sandpoint struggled against Lakeland’s tough man-to-man defense, committing 15 turnovers and getting off just 25 shots, hitting 11.

“We needed to knock Tyrel out of his rhythm,” Sandpoint coach Kent Leiss said. “I thought we did that a little bit. We ran a triangle and two, box and one, and we got them to take some goofy shots. But our biggest problem was trying to rebound out of those defenses.”

Lakeland (16-6) will open state March 5 at 5:15 p.m. PST vs. Mountain Home (17-7), which lost to Middleton (16-8) 62-47 in the championship game of the District 3 tournament Wednesday night.

Lakeland did not shoot a free throw. The Hawks last qualified for state in 2004 — the Hawks’ last year in 3A. Sandpoint last qualified for state in 2009.

Sandpoint 7 2 11 9 — 29

Lakeland 12 10 6 0 — 38

SANDPOINT — Timothy 10, Spalding 0, Norris 6, Sundquist 3, Kuzmich 2, Oliver-Mitton 3, Speakman 0, Collado 5.

LAKELAND — Ram 2, Cooper 4, Derrick 9, Henry 4, Plunkett 7, Ray 12, Knight 0.