Sandpoint secures home court in district championship series
SANDPOINT — The depth of the Sandpoint girls basketball team is starting to show as five Bulldogs scored 8 or more points in a 47-31 win over Moscow on Saturday night.
The victory helped Sandpoint complete a perfect 4-0 regular season in the 4A Inland Empire League and secure home court advantage throughout the best of three district championship series.
The No. 1 seed Bulldogs (14-7) will face the winner of Monday’s loser-out game between No. 3 Moscow and No. 2 Lakeland on Wednesday at Les Rogers Court in the opening game of the regional championship series.
“They’re very excited about the win tonight and what it means for us,” head coach Will Love said after the game. “They’ve been working really hard and this has been a goal for us since the beginning of the season.”
One of those five players that provided depth scoring for the Bulldogs was Brooklen Steiger. The senior came off the bench and helped spark the Sandpoint offense as soon as she touched the court. Steiger finished with 8 points and three rebounds.
Steiger said she saw gaps in the Moscow defense so she attacked them.
“They were on their heels so it was easy to get past them,” she said.
Steiger added that it felt good to help lift the team when some of Sandpoint’s primary scorers were struggling early on and the team is anxious to capture the district crown.
“I think we’ll be ready,” she said. “We just need to focus in and keep our composure and I think we’ll do good and earn that trip to state.”
Love said Steiger is never one to back down from a challenge and her performance against Moscow shows the progress she has made throughout her high school career.
“Brooklen’s a gamer,” he said. “She’s a talented athlete that really just started basketball in the eighth grade and she’s really developed quite a bit. You know that when Brooklen’s out there, that she is going to compete and compete hard and we definitely saw that tonight.”
Early on in Saturday’s game, the Bears slow, methodical offensive style worked as they were able to knock down a pair of 3-pointer’s to set the tone in the opening minutes.
After trailing 9-3 in the first quarter, the Bulldogs battled back and cut the deficit to just one point after eight minutes of action.
Then, just like the first matchup between these league foes, Sandpoint dominated the second quarter and outscored Moscow 18-6 to take control of the game.
Moscow tried to cut into the Bulldogs lead to start the second half, but they weren’t able to get anything going offensively and the deficit grew.
Sandpoint fended off the Bears late to claim its 14th win of the season.
Love said Moscow’s record is not indicative of how good they really are.
“Moscow is a really good coached team,” he said, “and so you do have to execute against them and the girls were able to do that even though we got down there at the beginning and had some struggles.
Our kids were resilient and that’s something that we’ve seen all season from this team.”
Junior Kaylee Banks led the Bulldogs with 9 points. Freshman Kelsey Cessna had 8 points and three assists, senior Dawson Driggs tallied 8 points and six rebounds and Hattie Larson added 8 points and nine rebounds.
Moscow 11 6 8 6 — 31
Sandpoint 10 18 11 8 — 47
MOSCOW — M. Watson 9, Gray 6, Heyns 0, Claus 2, P. Watson 7, Anderson 0, Craig 0, Lassen 7, Baker 0.
SANDPOINT — Cessna 8, Lish 1, Day. Driggs 0, Morgan 3, Daw. Driggs 8, Edwards 0, Steiger 8, Phillips 0, Larson 8, Platte 2, Banks 9.