Nikka Yankus, Kettle Falls’ 6-0 junior post, goes up for two of her 15 points in last Wednesday’s win over Columbia High. 

 Kettle Falls players pick up a few floor burns.

Sam Charlton of Kettle Falls goes up for shot.

Kettle Falls coming
off a 3-0 week

BY CHRIS COWBROUGH
S-E Sports Editor

Kettle Falls High (11-6, 3-3) played as well as they have all season last week in racking up three wins in as many outings.
KFHS downed Northeast A League doormat Chewelah (0-7, 1-18) 69-37 at home last Tuesday night behind the 17 points and six rebounds of Sam Charlton..
On Wednesday night, in a tough non-league skirmish with third-ranked 1B power Columbia High (Hunters), the Lady Bulldogs overcame a 16-10 first quarter deficit to down the visitors, 48-44.  
On Friday, Kettle evened the score on visiting Newport, getting a key three-point play from 6-0 junior post Nikka Yankus inside the game’s final 1 ½ minutes to win, 61-54.
THIS WEEK
Kettle Falls is on the road this week for their final Northeast A League regular season games of the season.  Kettle was at The Hub in Spokane Valley on Tuesday against Freeman.  The Lady Bulldogs will conclude regular season play on Friday at Lakeside.  Game time is 7:30 p.m.
KFHS head coach Tyler Edwards knows that beating Freeman and/or Lakeside is a tall order.  The Scotties and Eagles are currently tied atop the standings with 5-1 records entering the final week of league play.  
“I’d like to stay in third place,”  Edwards said on Monday.  “We’d just as soon not have to play a Pig-tail game (loser-out game to get into the District tournament).”  
The girl’s portion of the District 7 1A Tournament gets underway on Feb. 10.  
Kettle Falls lost to Freeman and Lakeside at home earlier this season.
RECAP
Kettle Falls effectively settled the outcome against Chewelah with a 30-10 first quarter.  Edwards can’t recall one of his teams scoring that many points in a quarter.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a team do that,”  Edwards said.  
KFHS outscored Chewelah 17-2 in the third quarter.
In an entertaining, well-played game against Columbia High, Yankus and Alexys Hall came up big for KFHS against a CHS team that relies heavily on its post play.
“I thought we did a good job against them inside,”  Edwards said.  “We have pretty good post defenders and you need to have that against them.”

Big nights for Yankus and Hall

Yankus played her best all-around game of the season, scoring 15 points and pulling down 13 rebounds.  Fellow junior Alexys Hall added 13 points and 14 rebounds.
“That was definitely a quality win,”  Edwards said, adding that “it was pretty clear that the rebounding was the key statistic.  Those (rebound totals) were career highs for both girls.”
In an important win over Newport, Kettle Falls did a much better job of taking care of the basketball.  In an earlier loss at Newport, KFHS committed 31 turnovers.  This time around, the Lady Bulldogs committed 17 turnovers.  Several of those came in an unsightly stretch in the fourth quarter “when we got careless and lackadaisical,” Edwards said.  “That was a bad three-minute stretch.”
But Kettle Falls played solidly enough to overcome that.  The Lady Bulldogs led by 14 points at one juncture of the second half.
“We shot reasonably well, defended and moved the ball well,”  Edwards added.  
Sam Charlton led KFHS with 19 points.  She hit on three three-pointers.
For the first time this season, Kettle Falls had four players in double figures.  
ELSEWHERE
Korina Baker scored 15 points to lead fourth-ranked Freeman (5-1, 17-1) to an 84-14 win over Chewelah last Friday night.
The Scotties jumped to a 19-2 first quarter lead.
Chewelah committed 35 turnovers.
Leslie Stillar scored 22 points to lad Lakeside (5-1, 16-2) to a 58-44 win over visiting Newport (10-8, 3-3).  
Lexie Zappone added 13 more for Lakeside.
Taylor Lewis led Newport with 17 points.

Kettle Falls 48, Columbia 44
CHS  16   4   11 13—44
KFH  10  14   9  15—48

Columbia--Loe 18, Osborn 6, Colvin 6, Dashiell 2, Parrow 8, J. Larrew 4.
Kettle Falls—Yankus 15, Sellars 4, Hall 13, Charlton 7, Ta. Bircher 6, Eslick 2, Beardslee 1.

Kettle Falls 69, Chewelah 37
Chew.  10  15  2  10—37
KFH    30    8  17  4--  69

Kettle Falls—Yankus 11, Sellars 4, Charlton 17, Hall 6, Stomley 4, Beardslee 6, Bircher 8, Larsen 6, Eslick 2, Bircher 4, Pounds 2.
Chewelah—Smith 2, Savannah 3, Garner 5, Coleman 5, Richmond 5, Br. Wuesthoff 12, Ba. Wuesthoff 3.

Kettle Falls 61, Newport 54
NHS  11  10  16  17—54
KFH  17  17  10  17—61

NHS--Bush 4, Lewis 18, Frederick 10, Odell 14, Morse 4, Pancho 2, Newcomb 2.  
Kettle Falls—Yankus 12, Charlton 19, Hall 12, Sellars 13, Bircher 2, Eslick 3.