Bulldogs hold off pesky Bears on Senior Night, keep hopes for No. 1 seed alive

SANDPOINT — Sandpoint girls basketball held off a second-half surge by Moscow to secure a 48-44 Inland Empire League victory on Saturday night at Les Rogers Court.

The win kept the Bulldogs' hopes for the No. 1 seed in the 4A Region 1 tournament alive.

It was the final home game for Sandpoint this season and the team honored its five seniors — Lily Gammon, Riley Cessna, Bella Phillips, Hattie Larson and Kaylee Banks — prior to tipoff.

Those five players started for the Bulldogs and head coach Will Love said it was nice to deliver a victory to such a dedicated group on Senior Night.

"Each one of them has just put in a bunch of time and they've committed to the success of Sandpoint basketball," he said. "Some of them have had to sacrifice some things, some of them have gone through injuries ... so it was just really awesome to see them all get on the court and get this win."

Early on Saturday, it looked like the Bulldogs were going to cruise to a victory. Sandpoint knocked down a trio of 3-pointers in the first quarter and Kaylee Banks dished out four assists to help SHS carry a commanding 17-4 lead into the second quarter.

The Sandpoint defense was also making life miserable for the Bears. During a stretch between the first and second quarter, the Bulldogs held Moscow scoreless for about six minutes.

SHS carried a 28-16 lead into the locker room.

In the second half, the Bears quickly clawed their way back into the game and trailed by just two points entering the fourth quarter.

Just over a minute into the final quarter, Moscow hit a shot to grab its first lead since early in the opening quarter at 36-35. All of the sudden, the Bulldogs were trailing and the Bears had all the momentum.

But Sandpoint didn't panic because they have Kaylee Banks. She converted a lay-in about 30 seconds later to help SHS retake the lead and then hit back-to-back 3-pointers on high-ball screens to allow the Bulldogs to grab a six-point advantage with just over five minutes left.

"That's an action that we just run to kind of get things going with a high-ball screen," Love said about Kaylee's back-to-back 3-pointers, "and let her kind of decide and they went under both times and Kaylee read that perfectly and got some big shots."

The Bears called a timeout after that surge by Sandpoint and put together one of their own. Moscow went on a 7-0 run to take a 44-43 lead with 2:18 left.

The fans inside Les Rogers Court could feel a win slipping away from the Bulldogs, then sophomore Karlie Banks stepped up with 1:24 left and buried a 3-pointer to end all those fears. The basket gave SHS a 46-44 lead and the team got a couple steals down the stretch to fend off the Bears and grab the season sweep.

Love said not many sophomores are willing to step up in a moment like that and bury a 3-pointer, but Karlie is.

"Karlie came to us at the beginning of the season and said, 'Hey I want to be a varsity player, what do I need to do,'" Love said, "and she's been doing everything that we've been asking, and that is a big time shot for a sophomore."

The Bulldogs were able to hold on for the win despite going 6-17 from the free-throw line and getting cold from the field after the first quarter.

The Bears transitioned from a zone defense to a man defense in the second quarter and Love said it took some time for the Bulldogs to find their away offensively after the switch.

"We struggled for a little bit," he said. "They went from the zone into the man and it just took us a while to get going."

Kaylee finished with a game-high 20 points and had five assists. She also knocked down four 3-pointers.

The senior guard is hitting her stride at the perfect time and stepping up when the Bulldogs need her most, and Love couldn't be more pleased.

"I'm really proud of her because she has put in a lot of time," he said about Kaylee. "One of the things that I talked to her about in the offseason was that her 3-point shooting percentage was pretty low and I said, 'if you want to get to where you can get, you need to work on that,' and she has worked on that a ton ... I think it's just a testament to her hard work."

Her younger sister, Karlie, tallied nine points and five rebounds, and Hattie Larson added 11 points, eight rebounds and four steals.

The Bulldogs (8-8, 5-6 IEL) head to Post Falls at 7 p.m. Tuesday for their final regular season game. In order to secure the No. 1 seed to the 4A Region 1 tournament, Sandpoint must beat the Trojans and Lakeland has to fall to Lake City on Tuesday as well. If both teams lose, they would finish with the exact same league and overall record, and Lakeland owns the tiebreaker based on point differential in 4A IEL play.

Moscow 4 12 17 11 — 44

Sandpoint 17 11 7 13 — 48

MOSCOW — A. Lassen 11, Heyns 6, Gray 12, Nauman 3, Watson 3, J. Lassen 7, Berg 0, Baker 2, Anderson 0.

SANDPOINT — Gammon 0, Driggs 2, Reinink 0, Lyons 3, Tomco 0, Cessna 3, Phillips 0, Kar. Banks 9, Larson 11, Kay. Banks 20.