Wampus Cats advance to district semis
Senior Josh Constantin elevates for one of the three dunks he had in the third quarter of Monday’s game.
(Photo by DYLAN GREENE)
CLARK FORK — Clark Fork boys basketball is on to the district semifinals after taking care of Kootenai 53-19 on Monday night in a 1A Division II District 1 loser-out game.
Now the Wampus Cats (6-13) face the daunting task of trying to take down No. 1 seed Lakeside 6 p.m. tonight at North Idaho College.
Clark Fork faced the Knights (19-0) in the regular season finale for both teams this past Thursday and got beat 89-36.
Despite the scoreline, head coach Heath Beason didn’t think his team played poorly, they just couldn’t knock down shots.
“Lakeside’s undefeated for a reason and we have to be on our A game not our B, C or D game,” he said about Tuesday’s game. “We definitely have to have no faults to be able to even have a chance. The way I look at it is, everybody’s 0-0.”
In the game against the Warriors, Clark Fork was in cruise control from the opening tip. The team took a commanding 17-0 lead right out of the gate.
Junior Cameron Garcia had 10 points in the opening quarter as the Wampus Cats built a 24-3 advantage after one.
The Warriors warmed up in the second quarter and Clark Fork turned the ball over six times which allowed Kootenai to outscore them 13-10 in the quarter.
With a comfortable 18-point lead heading into the second half, senior Josh Constantin and Clark Fork had one clear objective — get him a dunk.
On the first attempt, Constantin was fouled while going up for the jam. Then on the ensuing Kootenai possession, sophomore Carter San Roman got a rebound, fired a pass across half court and Constantin caught it and rattled the rim with a thunderous dunk. But he wasn’t done yet. On the next two possessions, the 6-foot-1-inch Constantin showed off his vertical and dunked it. Three possessions, three dunks. Pretty nice way to end your final home game in a Clark Fork uniform.
The dunk-a-thon was apart of a 11 point third quarter for Constantin, helping the Wampus Cats build a 49-19 lead entering the fourth.
Clark Fork held the Warriors scoreless in the final eight minutes to secure its sixth win of the season.
Constantin finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds. Garcia had 16 points, senior Charlie Abbott notched 6 points and six rebounds and San Roman tallied 2 points, six rebounds and five assists. Eight Wampus Cats scored in the game.
“It was the seniors’ last game in their home building,” Beason said, “and we wanted to stay fundamentally sound, we wanted to run our defense and we wanted to make sure that everything was crisp. I was proud of my seniors. They came out ready to go and they wanted to leave it all out on the court and I believe they did.”
Kootenai 3 13 3 0 — 19
Clark Fork 24 10 15 4 — 53
KOOTENAI — Brewster 0, G. Hysell 2, D. Hysell 0, Anderson 0, Renner 15, Zavala 0, Coppa 2.
CLARK FORK — Garcia 16, Bailey 0, J. Bopp 0, P. Bopp 2, San Roman 2, Reuter 2, Matsutaro 0, Constantin 21, Shelton 2, Steele 2, Abbott 6.