Some things change. But not Middleton’s dominance in girls basketball.
This was the year for a changing of the guard.
A global pandemic prevented any kind of offseason. The Southern Idaho Conference shortened its season two weeks. And perennial girls basketball power Middleton was breaking in its fourth head coach in four years.
But none of it could stop the Vikings, who captured another 4A District Three Tournament championship Thursday by routing Columbia 39-26 in the Wildcats’ own gym.
The win gives No. 1-ranked Middleton (17-2) the Treasure Valley’s top seed into next week’s 4A state tournament, where it opens against Burley (17-5) at 7 p.m. Feb. 18 at Mountain View High. But it also showcased the Vikings’ perseverance through a season like no other.
First-year Middleton head coach Trent Harrison didn’t have a summer to put his stamp on the program. Then practices started two weeks late. Then, three games into the season, a coronavirus exposure shut the program down for two weeks.
That led to a flurry of reschedules that forced the Vikings to play six games in 10 days before the district tournament started. But as the state tournament looms, Middleton finds itself in a familiar place as the favorite and top-ranked team.
Harrison credits his team’s flexibility throughout a year full of changes on and off the court.
“We just always said, ‘Stay ready so you never have to get ready,’” Harrison said. “And when they were on quarantine, they stayed ready.
“They ran separately. They ran on the track or around the neighborhood. They dribbled the ball in their living room and their garages. They kept shooting outside, even if it was 5 degrees.”
Middleton wasted no time flexing its dominance Thursday, jumping out to an 11-0 lead in the first quarter behind its trademark suffocating defense. It took 6 minutes, 21 seconds for Columbia to get on the scoreboard. And the Wildcats entered halftime trailing 17-5 with just two field goals and 13 turnovers in its scorebook.
The Vikings’ decade-plus run as a state power was always built on defense. And this year is no different, despite all the changes.
“We just adjusted,” said Middleton junior guard Payton Hymas, who scored a game-high 12 points. “You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. You can’t change it. So we just worked our butts off, practiced and came together.”
The loss temporarily stymied Columbia’s storybook run. Picked seventh out of eight teams in the 4A SIC’s preseason coaches’ poll, the Wildcats (13-10) surprised everyone and are guaranteed their first winning season since the school opened in 2006-07.
Thursday marked their first appearance in a district championship game. And despite the loss, they will play in their first state tournament next week.
Columbia opens with the North Idaho champ (Lakeland or Sandpoint) at 2 p.m. Feb. 18 at Mountain View.
