Sandpoint girls wins Game 1 in best-of-three

Sandpoint girls basketball coach Will Love labeled its first quarter performance against Lakeland at Sandpoint High School as its best offensive performance of the year.

The Bulldogs (11-8, 3-5) scored at all three levels in the opening eight minutes against the Hawks (8-10, 2-6) in the first game of a best-of-three series to determine the Class 4A district 1 champion.

Sandpoint defeated Lakeland in Game 1 of the series 48-37.

“We did a great job against a well-coached team,” Love said. “We were fortunate to come out on fire in a really big game.”

Sandpoint outscored Lakeland 18-8 in the opening quarter and took a 26-15 lead into the locker room.

“The girls were loose tonight and they were loose last night and it really felt like they were going to be competitive,” Love said. “They went out there and played extremely good offensive basketball.”

The Hawks went on an 8-0 run two minutes into the third to narrow the Bulldogs’ lead to 26-23 before Love called a timeout.

After the timeout, Sandpoint went on its own 7-2 run to extend its lead.

“We knew that they were eventually going to make that run,” Love said. “But the big thing was that there was going to be a buffer there.”

The offense for the Bulldogs maintained its momentum in the second half by taking the air out of the ball.

During the fourth quarter, Sandpoint demonstrated it’s ball moving skills and took advantage of not having a shot clock to force Lakeland to make mistakes.

With 2:31 left in the fourth quarter, Sandpoint got a steal and moved it down the court.

The players were finding the open man and distributing the ball, which forced Lakeland to foul. This possession took 45 seconds off the clock.

The points for Sandpoint were well dispersed among the team. Daylee Driggs and Aliya Strock paced the Bulldogs with 10 apiece.

But Sofia Platte stood out the most to Love; she had eight points and 12 rebounds.

“She was a horse on the boards,” Love said. “She was a huge difference maker on the defensive end. She doesn’t necessarily get a lot of limelight, but she’s the glue on our defense.”

Addie Kiefer and Lila Kiefer paced the Hawks with nine points each.

Sandpoint will play host in game two of the best-of-three series at 6 p.m. on Friday at Sandpoint High School.

If the Bulldogs win Game 2, they will be crowned district champions. But if Lakeland wins, Game 3 will be played at Lakeland High School in Rathdrum with a time and date to be determined.

Lakeland 8 7 13 9 - 37

Sandpoint 18 8 10 12 - 48

Lakeland

Sterling 5, A. Kiefer 9, L. Kiefer 9, Terzulli 0, K. Simon 8, Munyer 2, L. Simon

Sandpoint

Cessna 4, Driggs 10, Reinink 2, Tomco 6, Owens 0, Strock 10, Lyons 8, Platte 8.