Moscow headed back to State

Blake Buchanan hit a tie-breaking 3-pointerwith about two minutes remaining to give Moscow its final lead, and the Bears roared to a narrow, deciding 49-46 victory in Game 3 of a 4A District I-II title series against visiting Lakeland of Rathdrum on Saturday at Bear Den.

After losing Game 1 against Lakeland on Wednesday, the Bears boys’ basketball team came back to win the remaining two games in the best-of-three against the Hawks to take the district title.

“It was just a hard-fought game,” said Moscow coach Josh Uhrig, whose team is going to State for a fourth consecutive season. “We got big rebounds late in the fourth quarter, both on offense and defense. That kind of helped seal the deal.

“It was just two teams that know each other well going at it.”

The Bears (15-9) trailed 22-19 at halftime, but rallied to tie things up at 34 apiece by the end of the third quarter, then nose in front in the fourth.

Ben Postell was Moscow’s top scorer with 15 points. He had eight rebounds to boot.

Teammate Benny Kitchel joined Postell in double digits with 12 points, while Buchanan scored nine and had nine rebounds. Brayden Decker converted a 3-point goal and had a team-high five assists for the Bears.

Ben Zubaly of Lakeland (18-6) was the overall high-scorer at 17 points.

“Big thing — we had a huge crowd for the whole district tournament,” said Uhrig. “The kids feed off of that energy, so I really appreciated the support of the community and the student body. It doesn’t go unnoticed.”

The Bears, who have now won 10 of their last 11 games, begin their state tournament run facing Minico at 5:15 p.m. PST on Thursday at Borah High in Boise.

LAKELAND (18-6)

Ben Zubaly 6 1-2 17, Carson Seay 1 2-2 5, Ammon Munyear 5 0-0 10, Noah Haaland 5 3-4 14, Bryce Henry 0 0-0 0, Abe Munyear 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 6-8 46.

MOSCOW (15-9)

Reef Diego 0 0-0 0, Brayden Decker 1 0-1 3, Barrett Abendroth 1 0-0 3, Jamari Simpson 3 0-0 7, Joe Colter 0 0-0 0, Ben Postell 4 7-10 15, Blake Buchanan 3 2-6 9, Benny Kitchel 4 2-2 12. Totals 16 11-19 49.

Lakeland........11 11 12 12—46

Moscow..........12 7 15 15—49

3-point goals — Zubaly 4, Seay, Haaland, Decker, Kitchel 2 Abendroth, Simpson, Buchanan.