By Trevan Pixley
Sports Editor

  The Bengal boys basketball team made it to the state tournament after a crucial win over fellow Inland Empire league rival, the Post Falls Trojans. The Bengal’s earned the #1 seed for the 2017 state tournament in at Nampa, on March 2-3 finishing in 3rd place.
  Their first game of the tournament came against Mountain View. The back-and-forth game went into overtime at 60 points a piece In overtime, the Bengals scraped by the Mavericks with a score of 71-69. Senior and LCSC basketball commit, Trystan Bradley, led the team in points (24) as well as rebounds (13). Senior Riley Way also put up double-digit points with 14 According to Idahosports.com.
  Next the Bengals took on the Rocky Mountain Grizzlies, a team the Bengals are certainly acquainted with in basketball as well as football.  In 2016 the Grizzlies knocked the Bengals out of the state tournament with a score of 66-54. Adding to that, most of the boys on the team are fellow football players who had not forgotten about when Rocky knocked the Bengals out of the football playoffs with a score of 21-51. Unfortunately, lightning struck twice and the Grizzlies knocked the Bengals out from playing in the state championship with a score of 70-38, according to Maxpreps.com.
  That loss put the Bengals in the third place game at Columbia High School March 4 against a very familiar foe, the Post Falls Trojans. The Bengals seem to have the Trojans’ number this season. The Bengals were 2-1 against Post Falls heading into the game and improved that record to 3-1 after beating the Trojans in the third-place game by a score of 69-62.
  The 2017 tournament was the first time the Bengals placed at state since 2008, when they won the state title.
  “It felt amazing bringing home hardware with the team I’ve been playing with for the past three years,” said junior Braedan Wilson. “It just sucks knowing that it’s your last game with them and you have to rebuild the team chemistry again.”