"COEUR d’ALENE — With Sandpoint’s defense focusing on Lakeland forwards and its offense jumping out to an early 10-0 lead, the Hawks had to look for help in unexpected places.

Sophomore guard Carson Seay answered the call by coming off the bench and leading all scorers with 18 points on 5-of-12 shooting, including 4-of-6 from beyond the arc, lifting the Hawks to a 63-51 win on Monday night.

“Carson is one of those kids who is really steady and confident in his play,” Lakeland head coach Dave Stockwell said. “He may not be the fastest kid in the world, but he makes the right decisions and shoots the ball well. For a sophomore, I think he’s pretty doggone good.”

His shooting was the catalyst for the Hawks, who overcame an 0-for-5 shooting start in order to claw their way back into the game in the second quarter. As the Bulldogs tried to take Lakeland’s frontcourt out of the game, this left open shooters along the perimeter.

“[Sandpoint] was so concerned about Josiah in the middle, that the more we moved the ball, we’d eventually get somebody that was open,” Stockwell said.

Once Lakeland got into an offensive rhythm, everything fell into place. The Hawks held Sandpoint to 1-for-12 shooting and five points in the second quarter en route to a 29-19 halftime lead.

The Bulldogs seized several opportunities to take back the lead in the third quarter. Senior Alex Stockton and junior Kobe Banks helped Sandpoint kick off a 5-0 run in the third quarter’s opening minute, marking the first of three times the Bulldogs would pull within five points or fewer.

Bulldog senior point guard Bruin Jones opened the fourth with a pair of 3-pointers to cut the lead to five again, but the Hawks responded by attacking the paint. Although Lakeland shot 4-for-11 from the field in the fourth quarter, nine free throws in the last two minutes helped ice the game.

From here, Lakeland will have to figure out how to handle a 13-3 Moscow Bears squad that had a perfect record in the 4A Inland Empire League and won its conference games by an average of 20.7 points. “We’re going to have to beat them on the boards,” Stockwell said. “Moscow moves the ball well; the way they do things, the right guy gets the ball at the right time. As long as the ball goes in and we score one more point than they do, then we’ll be fine.”

Ben Zubaly tallied 17 points for Lakeland (9-10, 2-2 IEL), which will take on Moscow tonight at 6 at North Idaho College.

Stockton scored 16 points to lead the Bulldogs, who finished 7-12.

Sandpoint 14 5 16 16 — 51

Lakeland 13 16 17 17 — 63

SANDPOINT — Jones 9, Banks 7, Roos 11, Casey 2, Stockton 16, Niemela 4, Treadaway 0, Bailey 3, VanDenBerg 0, Thielbahr 0.

LAKELAND — Zubaly 17, Taylor 9, N. Haaland 11, J. Haaland 7, Am. Munyer 0, Seay 18, Strietzel 1, Ab. Munyer 0, Derrick 0."

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