Kase Wynott scores 68 points in Lapwai win over Genesee

GENESEE — At the end of the third quarter in a Whitepine League Division I boys basketball game Friday against Genesee, Lapwai senior Kase Wynott had 53 points.

Wynott has been chasing the all-time Idaho state career scoring record of 2,589, currently owned by Kamiah alum Jared Mercer, the whole season.

With one minute, four seconds left in the game, a simple layup from under the hoop gave him his 68th point, believed to break the single-game scoring record of 66 set by Dietrich’s Alan Stoddard in 1987, according to MaxPreps.com and Idahoops.com. The Utah State commit sat the final minute of the game after being in for all 31 minutes prior and the Wildcats closed out the game for a 105-43 win over the Bulldogs. Wynott also added 10 assists and 15 rebounds for a triple-double.

Wynott’s 68 puts him at 2,584 career points — six away from the all-time scoring record.

“It’s my teammates, man,” Wynott said after the game. “My teammates found me so many times throughout the game. I’m just so thankful for them. Without them, I couldn’t have done that. I just thank my teammates so much. I feel great. All that hard work is paying off — fruits of my labor are coming.”

Here’s how Friday night played out:

Wynott establishes early

The future Utah State Aggie wasted no time establishing the all-time pace. He scored the first 12 points for Lapwai (14-2, 9-0) and had 20 points in the first quarter. By halftime, he had 39.

In the third quarter, Genesee (1-14, 0-8) started double-teaming Wynott.

The Wildcats were without their second-leading scorer in Ahlius Yearout, who missed the game with a rolled ankle he suffered Tuesday against Prairie.

Yearout’s absence and the Bulldogs’ increased emphasis on Wynott in the second half left the bulk of the secondary scoring to Joseph Payne. He finished with 21 points on 8-of-16 shooting. Five of those were 3-pointers.

“I think it started in practice (Thursday),” Lapwai coach Zachary Eastman said. “We knew we weren’t going to have Ahlius and some of our players were going to have to play bigger roles in this game.”

In addition to Payne’s 21 points, Chris Bohnee made all-around contributions, finishing with seven rebounds, six assists and four points.

Bulldogs show some bite

In a prior meeting on Jan. 3, Lapwai got the win over Genesee 103-25.

The Bulldogs were not content with letting the Wildcats open the game as strong as last time.

With both teams using a similar style of zone defense, the Bulldogs were able to get some stops early and led 8-7 with 4:06 to go in the opening frame.

The lead didn’t last long as Lapwai went on a 22-6 run to close out the quarter to lead 29-14.

But, it was still a mark of improvement for a Genesee team that had already matched its point total from the last meeting against Lapwai with 3:56 left in the second quarter.

“The first quarter we played really well,” Genesee coach Tyler Bollman said. “We kept pace with (Lapwai). They’re so long on defense — we had a couple mental mistakes with easy turnovers for them. And they take advantage of our turnovers, so when we turn the ball over, it’s points (for Lapwai). So that hurt us. And then they just got on a run. ... Once they got on a run, we were buried at that point. But first quarter we did a really good job.”

Seth Vestal led the Bulldogs on offense, putting up 15 points on 6-for-14 shooting.

Players of the game

Wynott finished with a triple-double of 68 points, 10 assists and 15 rebounds on 29-of-42 shooting. He accounted for more than 90% of the Wildcats’ offense, including his assists.

Wynott watch

Lapwai will next play Jan. 25 at 6 p.m. against Clearwater Valley in Lapwai. Wynott needs six points to break the all-time Idaho state career scoring record.

The Wildcats beat the Rams 89-37 on Dec. 11. Wynott had 43 points in that game.

LAPWAI (14-2, 9-0)

Julian Barros 3 0-0 6, Joseph Payne 8 0-0 21, Ferrell Hayes 1 1-2 3, Triston Konen 0 0-0 0, Marcus Guzman 0 0-0 0, Quenten Kipp 0 0-0 0, Vinny Kipp 1 0-0 3, Chris Bohnee 2 0-1 4, Douglas Pappan 0 0-0 0, LaRicci George-Smith 0 0-0 0, Kase Wynott 29 5-5 68. Totals 44 6-8 105

GENESEE (1-14, 0-8)

Noah Bollman 0 3-4 3, Kaden Schwartz 2 0-0 5, Teak Wareham 3 3-4 9, Seth Vestal 6 2-2 15, Kalitri Hubbard 1 0-0 2, Derek Zenner 1 0-0 3, Joshua Ketcheson 0 0-0 0, Joe Johnson 0 0-0 0, Kolby Murray 1 0-0 4. Totals 15 10-12 43

Lapwai 29 30 26 20—105

Genesee 14 17 8 4— 43

3-point goals — Payne 5, Wynott 5, V. Kipp, Schwartz, Vestal, Zenner.

Kowatsch can be contacted at 208-848-2268, tkowatsch@lmtribune.com or on Twitter @Teren_Kowatsch.