They’ve dominated 5A girls basketball all season. Now they’ll meet for district title.
It will be No. 1 seed Mountain View against No. 2 Timberline in the 5A District Three girls basketball championship game.
Mountain View defeated Boise 54-52 and Timberline defeated Meridian 59-44 in the tournament’s semifinal games Saturday night. The championship game will be held at at 7 p.m. Friday at Borah.
Mountain View and Timberline clinched spots in the state tournament, while Boise and Meridian still have work to do. Meridian plays Rocky Mountain and Boise plays Eagle on Tuesday at Boise.
No. 1 Mountain View 54, No. 4 Boise 52
Mountain View (20-2, 16-2 5A SIC) didn’t look like the state’s No. 1 team in the first half against Boise (14-8, 12-6). With 3 minutes left in the second quarter, Boise took a 13-point lead off five straight points by Ava Oakland. Mountain View’s top post player, Naya Ojukwu, was out of the game with an ankle injury and her team was having a tough time dealing with Boise’s Peyton McFarland, a 6-foot-4 post who has committed to play at Utah.
Then, Mountain View turned on the pressure in the second half.
“We all put our heads down,” Mountain View’s Laila Saenz said. “Defensively, we knew we had to pick it up. We came together as a group and told ourselves we had to pick it up. That’s how we got going on the offensive end.”
Mountain View held Boise to only six points in the third quarter and ended up forcing 26 turnovers on the game. McFarland scored 12 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, but she shot 3-for-12 from the floor and turned the ball over four times.
Boise had a chance late in the game after a 12-5 run brought the game within two, but the Brave couldn’t steal the last inbounds pass and Mountain View ran out the clock.
“We showed our heart,” Mountain View coach Connie Skogrand said. “We got down early and we didn’t shoot very well, but started picking it up with our defense. It saved us again.”
For Mountain View, Saenz finished with 15 points, five rebounds, and four steals. D’Nia Williams added 11 points, and Trinity Slocum scored nine points. Oakland led Boise with 14 points, while Allison Ross also reached double figures with 10.
Mountain View will carry a 15-game winning streak into the district championship game against Timberline. Last year’s team went undefeated until losing in the state title game to Eagle.
“(The streak) doesn’t really mean anything,” Saenz said. “Especially after last year. Every game is a new game. We have to act like we just lost. We need to have the same mentality every game.”
No. 2 Timberline 59, No. 3 Meridian 44
Timberline (21-2, 16-2) outscored Meridian 20-2 in the first quarter and never looked back as the Wolves easily cruised to a spot in the district championship and a guaranteed berth in the state tournament.
Meridian (16-7, 13-5) made a run late in the game, but the closest it could ever bring the score was 50-38 with 3 minutes left. Timberline scored the next five points and put the game away.
A lot of the Timberline scoring came courtesy of the league’s leading scorer, Ava Ranson, who finished the game with 29 points.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” Ranson said. “I feel like we had a statement to make. We came out with energy, played for each other and got the job done.”
It wasn’t just Ranson, though. Meridian didn’t have an answer for Timberline’s dominant post play. Sophia Glancey, a sophomore post, finished with 12 points and seven rebounds, while Emma Ellinghouse, Timberline’s senior post, scored 10 points, seven rebounds and a blocked shot.
“We all really played as a team and played for each other,” Ellinghouse said. “It was a very unselfish game. We all just wanted to win.”
Timberline finished the game shooting 48%, while holding Meridian to only 24%. Graci Kolka led the scoring for Meridian with 15 points, while Jaleesa Lawrence put up 14 points and 7 rebounds.
With this win, Timberline has some confidence leading into the matchup against Mountain View, a team that the Wolves haven’t defeated since Jan. 3, 2012, a 16-game losing streak. Andy Jones, Timberline’s coach, knows how tough the championship game will be.
“Mountain View is a very resilient team,” Jones said. “So we’re just going to have to match that resiliency and play with some confidence, play tough, play smart, and figure out how to beat them.”
Timberline hasn’t won a state championship since 2003 but has an opportunity to make some noise in the state tournament with Ranson, Ellinghouse and Glancey leading the charge.
“I think this proves that we have something special going on here at Timberline,” Ellinghouse said. “We haven’t had it for a long time, and I think it is a good look for us. We are excited for it.”