5A girls state basketball: Rocky Mountain pushes top seed, but falls short of upset
Rocky Mountain took top-seeded Lake City to the wire. But the upset-minded Grizzlies ran out of steam, falling 44-39 in the first round of the 5A girls basketball state tournament Thursday at the Ford Idaho Center.
Eighth-seeded Rocky Mountain (12-14) cut the deficit to one point on Anna DaBell’s backdoor layup with 3:48 left in the fourth quarter. Lake City slammed the door on any comeback by holding the Grizzlies scoreless for the next 2:59.
“We struggled to score the whole game,” Rocky Mountain coach BJ Humprhey said. “I mean, we didn’t shoot it well, and we had open shots and open looks. It’s sort of one of those nights. We didn’t score enough.
“Before the game, I said if it could be in the 40s, we’ve got a chance. But we didn’t get to the 40s.”
Lake City (21-3) entered as the tournament favorite and No. 1 seed via its MaxPreps ranking. The Timberwolves never trailed, but they could never deliver a lethal blow to the Grizzlies either.
Rocky Mountain used a three-quarter-court press to fluster Lake City into seven first-quarter turnovers. But the Timberwolves committed only five the rest of the way to keep Rocky Mountain at arm’s length. And two key press breaks late in the fourth quarter led to buckets by Sophia Zufelt and Emberlyn Reynolds to turn that one-point lead back into five.
“Honestly, I was never really concerned because they’ve done that all year long,” Lake City coach James Anderson said. “They’ve responded to adversity every time.”
Allie Bowman scored 10 points and swiped four steals to lead the Timberwolves, who advanced to the semifinals for the first time since 2007. Zufelt added eight points, and Kamryn Pickford chipped in seven.
Marli Reed led Rocky Mountain with 10 points. Brielle Magnuson had nine points, and DaBell added seven points and seven rebounds.
Despite the loss, Humphreys said he was proud of his team, which drops into the consolation bracket.
“We battled like crazy,” Humphreys said. “There’s nobody outside of our inner circle that (thought) we were going to keep it within 20 (points). I’m incredibly proud of our girls’ effort and just their attention to detail in the game plan and their preparation this week.”
This story was originally published February 17, 2022 at 2:29 PM.
