Sandpoint jumps out to early lead, but falls to Lakeland, 63-51

COEUR D’ALENE — Fueled by a 10-0 run in the opening 3:15 Sandpoint’s third and final game against Lakeland, the Bulldogs couldn’t have asked for a better start.

The trouble was keeping that momentum throughout the game, which ultimately ended in a 63-51 loss in the 4A IEL play-in game at North Idaho College on Monday night.

“We came out and really executed our stuff well and made our shots,” Sandpoint head coach Wade Engelson said. “I was very proud of our guys. We could have rolled over, but they came back in the second half and made it a four or five point game. Our guys gave great effort; the distance was some shots didn’t fall for us, but they shot really well.”

Lakeland found its spark from sophomore guard Carson Seay answered the call by coming off the bench and leading all scorers with 18 points on 5-12 shooting, including 4-6 from beyond the arc. His shooting was the catalyst for the Hawks, who overcame a 0-5 shooting start in order to claw their way back into the game in the second quarter. As the Bulldogs tried to take Lakeland’s front-court out of the game — which they did, by holding Haaland to seven points and seven rebounds — this left open shooters along the perimeter. Slow closeouts and switches doomed the Bulldogs at the worst possible time, as the Hawks finally hit their shots. The Hawks finished shooting 8-20 (40 percent) from three.

The Hawks held Sandpoint to 1-12 shooting and five points in the second quarter en route to take a 29-19 halftime lead. On top of the cold second quarter, the Bulldogs had to counter the Hawks’ run without junior Kobe Banks, who picked up his third foul midway through the second quarter.

“We went ice cold,” Engelson said. “We had some good shots in the second quarter, but they didn’t go down for us. We’ve struggled in the second quarter — it’s really been our nemesis this season.”

But with help from seniors Alex Stockton (16 points, 12 rebounds) and Bruin Jones (nine points, six rebounds and four assists), the Bulldogs seized several opportunities to take back the lead in the third quarter. Stockton and junior Kobe Banks helped Sandpoint kick off a 5-0 run in the third quarter’s opening minute, marking the first of three times the Bulldogs would pull within five points or fewer. Later, Jones opened the fourth with a pair of threes in order to cut the lead to five again.

In Engelson’s eyes, these performances were indicative of traits the seniors had shown all season.

“Both of the seniors have worked so hard and they’ve set a great example,” Engelson said. “They compete every possession on the basketball court, and that’s one of the foundational principles of being a successful team.”

Although Lakeland shot 4-11 from the field in the fourth quarter, nine free throws in the last two minutes — combined with empty Bulldog possessions — helped ice the game.

From here, Lakeland will have to figure out how to handle a 13-3 Moscow Bears squad that had a perfect record in league play and won their league games by an average of 20.7 points.

Sandpoint’s first season under Engelson ends with a 7-12 (0-4 IEL) record.

Sandpoint 14 5 16 16 — 51

Lakeland 13 16 17 17 — 63

SANDPOINT — Jones 9, Banks 7, Roos 11, Casey 2, Stockton 16, Niemela 4, Treadaway 0, Bailey 3, VanDenBerg 0, Thielbahr 0.

LAKELAND — Zubaly 17, Taylor 9, N. Haaland 11, J. Haaland 7, Am. Munyer 0, Seay 18, Strietzel 1, Ab. Munyer 0, Derrick 0.