Its district three-peat was in jeopardy. Then Mountain View’s star player took over.
A pulled groin muscle limited her. Her shooting touch vanished for stretches. She faced double-, triple- and even quadruple-teams at times.
But when the Mountain View High School girls basketball team needed Naya Ojukwu the most Friday, the 6-foot junior forward rode to the rescue.
Ojukwu scored 12 of her game-high 30 points in the fourth quarter, carrying the Mavericks to a 54-47, come-from-behind win over Boise in the 5A District 3 championship game at Eagle High.
“She should be a Top 10 (player) in the nation,” Mountain View senior Trinity Slocum said. “I’m not gonna lie. No girl can go up against four and still make it look easy. It’s just, ‘Throw it up to her.’”
The Mavericks (17-2) did that early and often Friday, forcing the ball into the paint where Ojukwu turned plays that looked doomed into two points with ease. Even with a defender on both sides of her and Boise players crashing en masse once she touched the ball, Ojukwu kept muscling, slicing and contorting her way to the basket.
“When you see a player like that, why not feed her the ball?” Slocum said. “Why not keep going at her? … If she’s going to jump that high, she might as well dunk it too.”
Mountain View trailed by as many as eight points late in the third quarter and entered the fourth quarter down by seven. But it rallied behind Ojukwu, the 5A SIC’s leading scorer (23.1 ppg) and rebounder (9.8 per game), out scoring Boise 21-7 in the final quarter.
Ojukwu also finished with a team-high seven rebounds to ensure Mountain View its third straight district title. Centennial was the last girls basketball team to three-peat at the 5A District 3 Tournament from 2009 to 2011.
“It’s a championship game,” Mountain View coach Connie Skogrand said. “And when you have a kid step up in the fourth quarter, it just tells you that she’s a gamer.
“That’s what you want from your top players. You want those kids that are going to step up at critical times in the game and finish the game for you. That’s what she did.”
Slocum added 12 points, eight assists and three steals for Mountain View, which clinched the 5A SIC’s top spot in next week’s state tournament with Friday’s victory. The defending state champs face No. 5 Timberline (11-2) at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.
Boise (9-4) also qualified for the 5A state tournament as the district runner-up. It will open against No. 1 Coeur d’Alene (18-1) at 11:30 a.m. Thursday at the Idaho Center.
Juniors Ashley Banks and Ella Nelson both scored 11 points for Boise. And Allison Ross and Avery Howell each chipped in nine.
This story was originally published February 12, 2021 at 10:32 PM.
