‘You can’t scout the defense.’ No. 1 Owyhee stifles No. 3 Borah for 10th straight win
When seven of the eight seniors on Owyhee’s girls basketball team have been playing on varsity together since the ninth grade, a lot of things become second nature.
Like standing in line for the national anthem according to height, sitting in a circle for pregame stretches, and — most importantly — playing defense.
The top-ranked Storm dismantled No. 3 Borah 46-29 on Tuesday night on the Lions’ home court, maintaining a perfect record in 6A Southern Idaho Conference action with one regular-season game remaining.
“As freshmen, we kind of started off just scrappy and trying to defend our name,” Owyhee senior Mikale Roy said. “But now we have muscle and we’re able to compete with teams that we never thought we would be able to compete with.
“It’s always been an adjustment straight from the beginning, but now we finally have settled in and I think it’s just a great way for us to continue on what we’ve been working on for the last four years.”
Owyhee boasts the top defense in the classification, allowing an average of just 36 points per game. The Storm (19-1, 10-0) held the Lions (15-4, 7-2) to their lowest point total of the season and limited them to just 19.6 percent shooting, including the entire second quarter without a field goal.
“(Defense) is what we’ve got to kind of hang our hats on,” Owyhee coach George Rodriguez said. “And we’re going to continue to do that, because you can’t scout the defense.”
The Storm have been ranked the No. 1 team in the state six straight weeks, receiving all but one first-place vote in that span.
The hype seems to be warranted.
Owyhee has won 10 straight games, with its only loss coming to Democracy Prep, the No. 1-ranked team in Nevada. The Storm are beating opponents by an average of 19.2 points per game, and no one in Idaho has gotten to them.
“Every day we come into practice, we look at where our banner is going to go in the next few weeks,” Roy said. “That’s what we’re working for and that’s what we’re looking forward to. We come into practice every day saying, ‘We are the No. 1 team. We need to practice like it. We need to play like it, and we need to act like it on and off the court.’”
On Tuesday night, the Storm led just 9-8 after the first quarter before finding their rhythm over the final eight minutes of the opening half. Roy and fellow senior Riley Beck combined for all 14 of Owyhee’s points in the second quarter, which was part of a 16-2 run that resulted in a 23-10 advantage for the Storm at halftime.
Beck tied for the team lead with 13 points despite missing much of the second half with foul trouble. Senior point guard Josie Davis also had 13 points to go with six rebounds and three assists, senior forward Maiya Hardy added nine points, three rebounds and two assists, and Roy totaled eight points, eight boards and four steals.
“We’ve been wanting this for so long,” Beck said. “And it feels like this year, since we’ve all been together, it could be a good year.”
Borah was paced by sophomore Kya Davis, who contributed 10 points and seven rebounds before fouling out at the start of the fourth quarter.
This story was originally published January 28, 2025 at 10:38 PM.
