Sandpoint slides to 0-4 against patient Timberlake team
(Photo by KYLE CAJERO) Izzo Edwards defends Olivia Hammond on Thursday.
(Photo by KYLE CAJERO) Sandpoint junior Aly Lish looks for a teammate as Timberlake’s Bernie Carhart applies pressure.
(Photo by KYLE CAJERO) Brooklen Steiger (12) and Bella Phillips (22) surround Timberlake’s Blayre Jeffs during the fourth quarter of Sandpoint’s 56-16 loss.
Sandpoint had no answer for Timberlake forward Brooke Jessen, who finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds in the Bulldogs’ 56-16 loss on Thursday night.
“[Jessen] is a great player,” Sandpoint head coach Will Love said. “The thing I was hoping to see from our team was not giving up as much dribble penetration as we did because that made it a lot easier for her to score.”
Timberlake head coach Matt Miller echoed that sentiment after the game, which was the Tigers’ fifth-straight win.
“Brooke is hard to stop,” Timberlake head coach Matt Miller said. “She’s a really skilled player and she’s got a lot of weapons to go to. Our guards did a good job finding her when she was open tonight.”
Timberlake was patient early, as their first possession lasted nearly a minute, testing the patience of a young Sandpoint team. Guards McKelley Tonkin (15 points, game-high 5 assists) and Taryn Soumas (10 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals) picked apart the defense, regularly finding their teammates against a smaller Bulldog lineup.
Izzo Edwards — who led Sandpoint with 11 points, three steals and three rebounds— gave Sandpoint a 2-0 lead, but the Tigers rattled off 14 straight points to close the quarter.
“I thought we started a little bit better than we have,” Love said. “But good teams like Timberlake are able to make adjustments, and we weren’t ready to adjust on the fly.”
The second quarter was more of the same. Sandpoint countered with a smaller lineup, but Jessen and Tankin stole the show by going on their own 10-0 run to open the quarter. Edwards’ 15-footer from the elbow was the lone basket for Sandpoint in the second.
“One of the things we’ve been focusing on is putting the ball on the floor, finding gaps and attacking them,” Sandpoint head coach Will Love said. “[Edwards] did that tonight.”
The second half was a formality for Timberlake. The Tigers regularly beat Sandpoint back in transition in a monster 22-point quarter that put the game out of reach.
“I thought we transitioned really well in the second half,” Miller said. “We didn’t transition as well in the first half, but we did a really good job of that.”
Hattie Larson added two points and three rebounds, and Bella Phillips added three rebounds off the bench for the Bulldogs. Three Timberlake starters finished in double-figures and the team notched a 16:14 assist-to-turnover ratio in the win.
Sandpoint failed to record an assist on seven made field goals.
Sandpoint (0-4) will travel to St. Maries this Saturday.
Timberlake 17 16 22 1 — 56
Sandpoint 4 2 6 4 — 16
TIMBERLAKE — Tonkin 15, Soumas 10, Suko 3, Hammond 0, Jessen 25, Carhart 3, Sande 0, Jeffs 0.
SANDPOINT — Lish 0, Edwards 11, Morgan 0, Larson 2, Petit 1, Banks 2, Steiger 0, Lyons 0, Phillips 0, Anderson 0