Badgers basketball team drops season opener to Lakeland, 64-43

The Lakeland Hawks basketball teal took advantage of a 20-4 run in the second quarter to outlast the visisting Badgers 64-43.

The Badgers played well, particularly in the second half, but were unable to make up the ground in the second. Head Coach Andy Rice said he was happy with how his team played in the first game of the season, second quarter notwithstanding.

“I thought we played three quarters of really good ball,” Rice said. “We were down by three after the first quarter, but that second quarter, they really pulled away from us. Going on a 20-4 run, that was really the game right there. They had a lot of shots that fell for them, they shot extremely well, and they have a deep talent pool to pull from. That second quarter, we just kind of got out of the type of game we need to play to be successful. But we talked it over at halftime, and I thought we made some great adjustments.”

The Badgers played the Hawks even in the third quarter, and Lakeland only outscored BFHS by two in the fourth.

“Basically, the second half was a two-point game,” Rice said. “That second quarter just really killed us. I was really happy with how we played, it was pretty exciting. It was a loss, but it was a lot closer than the 21-point score would indicate.”

Rice said the Badgers will continue to build on the positives he took away from the game as the team prepares for the Lake City JV on Thursday.

“We have some guys that can flat-out run,” he said. “We had a lot of good things happen, and I thought we did a pretty good job of running our offense and taking advantage of situations. We need to get better with some of our passes and screen a little better. We always need to work on our defense, as well as boxing out. Boxing out leads to more points. For the first game of the year I was happy, we did a lot of things really well. And the guys were upbeat about the game, they never got down on themselves. I think we’re on the right track, and I’m really excited about our season.”

Caleb Blackmore led the Badgers in scoring with 13 points. Kaleb Stockton followed with 12 points and Caleb Harrington chipped in with nine points. Leading the way for the Badgers by a player not named Caleb was Elijah Price with seven points.

“It was a great team game, we only have eight guys,” Rice said. “Everybody played pretty good minutes, and there was lots of good stuff.”

The Badgers open up their home schedule Thursday against Lake City JV at 7 p.m., followed by a game Saturday at home against Newport at 4:30 p.m. 

Statistics

3-point goals - Stockton 2, D. Knight, Davis 4, McDevitt 2, A. Knight. 

Total fouls - Bonners Ferry 13, Lakeland 20.

Fouled out - Price, Zubaly.

Technicals - None.

Scoring

Bonners Ferry

Price 2 3-6 7, Sabin 1 0-0 2, Stockton 4 2-3 12, Pluid 0 0-0 0, Karl 0 0-2 0, Harrington 3 3-8 9, Blackmore 6 1-4 13, Bateman 0 0-0 0, Totals 16 9-23 43.

Lakeland

Horne 2 0-0 4, Brueher 0 0-0 0, McDaniel 0 2-4 2, D. Knight 1 1-2 4, Cysewski 0 0-0 0, Vahey 0 0-0 0, Davis 5 0-0 14, McDevitt 5 2-2 14, Zubaly 5 3-6 13, A. Knight 6 0-0 13, Ray 0 0-0 0, Totals 23 8-14 64.