Centennial stuns No. 1 Lake City with first-round upset. ‘No one outside (us) believed.’
Centennial delivered the stunner of the day in the first game of the 5A boys basketball state tournament.
The No. 8-seeded Patriots knocked off No. 1 Lake City 72-67 at the Ford Idaho Center, shocking the tournament favorite to advance to Friday’s semifinal round.
Centennial (15-10) will face Rigby (17-8) at 5 p.m. Friday at the Idaho Center for a spot in the championship game.
“No one outside (us) believed that we were even going to make it to state,” Centennial senior Kaden Christensen said. “And now we just beat the No. 1 seed.”
Christensen led the upset, erupting for 27 points. He entered the season as one of the leading returning scorers in the 5A Southern Idaho Conference. Centennial coach Josh Aipperspach said he accepted a lesser role as a distributor on a team that needed one. But when the Patriots needed him most, he put them on his back.
“My boy went off,” said Centennial senior Weston Johnson, who had a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds. “He just thought the other person who was guarding him on the other side of the court just couldn’t guard. He took him all the way to the hole every time. He just broke loose.”
The Patriots started the game on fire, sinking 4-of-5 3-pointers in the first quarter and 6-of-10 before halftime. A team that often lives and dies by the 3-pointer cooled off in the second half, and Lake City (22-2) took its first lead midway through the third quarter.
But Johnson’s give-and-go 5-footer with 3:39 left gave the Patriots the lead back for good. Centennial mounted a 15-2 run in the fourth quarter, and it sank 17-of-20 free throws down the stretch to ice the game.
Lake City spent all season anointed as the heavy favorite after a second-place finish last year and with three juniors with Division I futures. But the Timberwolves had no answer for the underdog Patriots, who were playing with nothing to lose.
“In the end, we knew we’ve got the guys,” Aipperspach said. “We’ve been doubted all year. I know what these guys can do, and so we just believed. We have been believing all week when we ran through their stuff.
“We got a bunch of fighters in there, man. Our backs have been against the wall all year. And you know what? These guys believed in them, believed in us and went out there and took care of business.”
This story was originally published March 3, 2022 at 4:14 PM.
