The Cheney High boys’ basketball team missed a couple chances to head into the Christmas break with a winning record with a pair of losses against two good teams. The Blackhawks lost a close 59-53 game on Dec. 21 to a hot-shooting North Central team of the Greater Spokane League’s 3A classification, and followed that with a 66-51 road loss to the Idaho 4A Inland Empire League leading Lakeland Hawks.
Cheney battled the visiting Indians throughout the game last Thursday, going out to a 7-0 lead that NC eventually overcame on the shooting of Leon Sayers. The Blackhawks held a slim 34-32 lead at the half, but couldn’t overcome Sayers hot hand.
NC’s 6-foot-7-inch forward finished with a game-high 26 points, 18 on six 3-pointers. The Indians (5-3) also outshot Cheney at the free throw line, going 9 for 12 compared to the Blackhawks 5 for 8.
Justace Reiter and Kaiden Custer led Cheney with 11 points each, with Devin Cook adding 10 points.
The Blackhawks played well but couldn’t find a way against 6-1 Lakeland as the Hawks outscored Cheney in each quarter for the 66-51 win. Reiter and Nick Berman led Cheney in scoring with 14 points each while Cook added 11.
Cheney was called for 23 fouls to Lakeland’s 15, with the Hawks going 9 for 19 at the line compared to the Blackhawks 6 for 10. Lakeland hit five 3 points compared to Cheney’s one, with all of senior forward Nathan Johnson’s nine points coming from beyond the arc.
Cheney goes to 3-5 overall, 1-1 Great Northern League, and wraps up the 2017 portion of their schedule on Dec. 30 by hosting GSL 3A Mt. Spokane (5-2). The Blackhawks return to GNL play on Jan. 3 by hosting Pullman (7-1, 2-0), then travels to face Clarkston (3-2, 2-1) on Jan. 5 and a second game against West Valley (5-3, 2-1) on Jan. 9.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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