Two D-I prospects battled in 5A state semifinals. The clash ended Boise’s title hopes
UNLV signee Teagan Colvin and USC signee Avery Howell put on a show Friday. But only one could leave the Ford Idaho Center with a victory in the 5A girls basketball state semifinals.
Colvin and Coeur d’Alene walked away with that win, outlasting Howell and Boise for a 58-55 victory. It sent the defending state champ back to the title game Saturday and allowed the Vikings to end the Brave’s season in the semifinals for the second straight year.
No. 4 Coeur d’Alene (19-5) will face No. 2 Lake City (25-2) in the championship at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Ford Idaho Center.
Colvin (33 points) and Howell (35 points) traded highlight-reel basket after highlight-reel basket throughout Friday’s semifinal. But Colvin poured in 12 points in the fourth quarter, and she scored all eight of the Vikings’ points in the final 2 minutes to snap top-seeded Boise’s 20-game winning streak.
“The bigger the stage, the better she’s going to be,” Coeur d’Alene coach Nicole Symons said. “She always has been. I’ve watched her since fifth grade, and she’s done the same stuff. It’s just in her.”
[Related: State tournament scores, brackets | Championship predictions | Scouting reports on every team]
Colvin drained a 3-pointer in Howell’s face with 1:45 left for a three-point lead. Then after Howell answered with a clutch 3 of her own, Colvin blew by Howell and Boise’s Kaity Haan for a layup high off the glass.
Howell missed her final two shots, but she still finished 12-for-19 from the floor and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds for her 17th double-double of the season.
“Those are good looks,” Boise coach Kim Brydges said. “If you look at her stat line, she knocked down plenty of good looks today. Those are things she hits on a regular basis, and she’ll hit them in college, too.
“I would be happy to put my money on Avery Howell.”
Kaity Haan was Boise’s second-leading scorer with five points, and the rest of the Brave lineup finished 6-for-15 from the field.
Coeur d’Alene is in the finals in a different role than last year, when it entered as the heavy favorite. But Colvin missed five to six weeks with a broken hand, the Vikings dropped five games and they started this year’s tournament as the No. 4 seed.
Colvin said none of that matters now.
“It stung a little bit. I’m going to be honest,” Colvin said. “But we’re here to show it. Numbers can say anything. Rankings can say anything. But a team shows it on the court, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Colvin received plenty of help Friday from her younger sister, freshman Brookslee Colvin. The younger Colvin poured in 18 points while hitting 5-of-7 3-pointers. The duo combined to score 51 of Coeur d’Alene’s 58 points, and all of its 32 points in the first half.
They also led the Vikings’ onslaught from the 3-point line. Coeur d’Alene finished 12-for-26 behind the arc and just 4-for-12 inside it.
“We beat them both quarters in the second half, but we dug ourselves a little bit of a hole in the first half,” Brydges said. “They were shooting, guns blazing.”
Boise dropped into the third-place game, where it will face Rigby (23-3) at noon Saturday at Bishop Kelly High. The Brave finished third last year and have won a state tournament trophy four years in a row.
Boise’s loss meant that for the first time since 2013, the 5A Southern Idaho Conference won’t have a team in the state championship game.
Saturday will also mark the first championship round without a single team from District Three in any classification since 1995.
LAKE CITY 56, RIGBY 53
Sophia Zufelt scored 15 of her game-high 22 points in the second half, powering the Timberwolves into an all-North Idaho championship match against Coeur d’Alene.
Zufelt hit a 3-pointer with 2:17 left to pull Lake City within one. Then Montana signee Avery Waddington swiped a pass at the top of the key for a breakaway layup with 1:51 left that swung the lead one last time.
Lake City survived three potential game-winning shots from Rigby in the final 30 seconds as neither team sank a field goal in the final 1:50.
Kaliah Frazey added 12 points, and Kamryn Pickford scored 10 points for Lake City.
Kambree Barber led Rigby with a double-double of 16 points and 14 rebounds, and Mylee Graham added 13 points.
This story was originally published February 16, 2024 at 7:55 PM.
