One big upset, one wild comeback top 6A SIC girls basketball tournament first round
The first round of the 6A District Three girls basketball tournament began with four games on Thursday in the Boise area.
Top-seeded Middleton and No. 3 Eagle each rolled into the semifinals with running-clock mercy rule wins, while Rocky Mountain scored a major upset and four-time defending district champ Boise eked out a win against Timberline.
The semifinal matchups take place Saturday at Centennial High School. The winner of each semifinal automatically advances to the upcoming state tournament.
6A SIC DISTRICT SEMIFINAL MATCHUPS
- No. 1 Middleton (18-3) vs. No. 5 Boise (15-8), 4:30 p.m.
- No. 7 Rocky Mountain (15-8) vs. No. 3 Eagle (20-2), 6 p.m.
[Related: 6A to 1A district tournament brackets, scores in Southwest Idaho]
ROCKY MOUNTAIN 57, BORAH 51: Down a long hallway, past a set of double doors and beyond into the locker room, the Grizzlies’ cheers were easy to discern.
It was exactly the upset seventh-seeded Rocky Mountain had been hoping for.
After losing both regular-season matchups to No. 2 Borah (18-4), the Grizzlies (15-8) upended the Lions with a sharp-shooting second half, taking the lead with 5:43 remaining in the third quarter on a mid-range jumper from junior guard Brooklyn Anderson and never looking back.
“This morning I was like, ‘OK, we’re going against the two seed. If we win this game, it’s going to be an amazing upset. We could basically do anything,’” Rocky Mountain junior Liv Sangsland said. “When we’ve played them in the past, and any other team we’ve played, we’ve gotten so close to winning. It’s just small things that we need to fix.
“I just had a great feeling about this game.”
Sangsland scored a team-leading 22 points with six rebounds as Rocky Mountain shot 67% from the field in the second half, including a 5-for-6 effort from 3-point range (83%). Sangsland finished 7-for-12 from the field and made five of the Grizzlies’ seven triples in the game.
“I’m just really proud of our team and the belief that they have in each other, the trust that they have in our coaching staff and how hard they work for us,” Rocky Mountain coach BJ Humphreys said. “They sacrifice time and getting yelled at and getting coached, and they respond.”
Trailing 21-18 at the half, the Grizzlies made their run when Borah standout Kya Davis got in foul trouble. Davis went to the bench with 3:52 left in the third quarter with her fourth foul, sparking a 13-6 Rocky Mountain run for a 41-32 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Rocky Mountain led by as many as 13 points near the start of the third quarter, before withstanding a Borah comeback that included a pair of 3-pointers from Davis.
The Lions cut the deficit to as little as 54-51 with 37 seconds left, but the Grizzlies converted just enough at the free-throw line to close out the win.
“I thought we put together about 29 good minutes,” Humphreys said. “Their pressure at the end kind of hurt us. We had to sweat for it. But they’re a good team, and they’re gonna make you work for it.”
Sophomore guard Mercy Hatfield added a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds in the win for Rocky, and freshman forward Kerington Kollman contributed 11 points and nine boards.
Davis led the Lions with 23 points, three rebounds and two assists, and sophomore guard Brinley Chase totaled 11 points, six rebounds and three steals.
BOISE 46, TIMBERLINE 43: Never count out the four-time defending district champ. But in case anyone started to, the Brave provided a reminder why Thursday.
Boise erased a 15-point deficit to complete a stunning comeback that keeps its chances of a fifth straight district trophy alive. And the Brave did it with one of their top players, senior Libby Nelson, spending most of the night on the bench in foul trouble.
“I think if anything, it shows their confidence moving forward,” Boise coach Seth Newville said. “It’s a new team. To be honest, we didn’t necessarily know what to expect going into this because only a few of our players had been in an atmosphere in a game like this.
“We had some freshmen step up, and then some players that normally don’t play big minutes for us. It’s just the next step mentality that we preach all the time, and the girls responded to it.”
A slow Boise start turned into a disaster when Nelson picked up her fourth foul with 3:39 left in the first quarter. An aggressive rebound earned the senior guard her third violation, and she slammed the ball to the ground in frustration for a technical and her fourth foul.
Timberline (18-5) took advantage, mounting a 12-1 run in the second quarter to take a 15-point lead with 2:50 to go until halftime. But the Brave slowly whittled away, and Nelson provided an immediate boost when she returned in the fourth quarter.
Her assist to Nya Pellant-Latham cut the deficit to one to start the fourth quarter. Nelson also capped a 12-2 run with a 3-pointer for a seven-point lead, and she sank a pair of free throws to give Boise a five-point cushion with 27 seconds left.
“To be able to go from sitting out all the way up until the fourth quarter, and to come in and get the big assist and then hit a big 3, I think it just shows her growth as a player and her maturity,” Newville said.
Timberline threatened a comeback of its own. Senior Emmi Swillie sank a putback with 8.9 seconds to make it a three-point game, and the 6-foot-2 forward earned a clean look at a game-tying 3 at the buzzer. But it hit the front of the rim and fell to the floor.
Nelson may have provided the drama, but Pellant-Latham carried Boise for large stretches. The 6-foot-1 junior racked up 14 points, 15 rebounds and two steals while shooting 7-for-14 from the floor. And she held Swillie to just two points as the two posts battled all night.
Newville said Timberline built a zone designed to contain Pellant-Latham. But she remained patient, and Boise found ways to get her the ball in the second half. She scored 10 of her 14 points after the break.
Senior Lexie Moore led Timberline with 12 points, four rebounds and five steals, and teammate Fanci Sackett added 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting.
The Wolves drop into the losers’ bracket, where they face Mountain View in an elimination game at 1 p.m. Saturday at Owyhee.
MIDDLETON 65, MOUNTAIN VIEW 31: The Vikings squeaked out a two-point win at Mountain View last week. But the top-seeded Vikings didn’t entertain any thoughts of a repeat in the rematch Thursday.
Middleton forced 10 first-quarter turnovers to jump out to a 20-2 lead at the quarter break, and they triggered the running-clock mercy rule in the fourth quarter en route to a comfortable victory.
Middleton coach Marianne Blackwell said last week’s tight game on an opponent’s senior night lit a fire under her squad, forcing them to refocus for the upcoming district tournament.
“They definitely came with a sense of, ‘This is our house, no matter what house (it is),’” Blackwell said. “We put in the work. Now go display that.”
The contest got out of hand quickly as the Vikings’ pressure defense prayed on a sleepy Mountain View start, forcing turnovers in bunches to rack up easy buckets. The Mavericks finished the night with 23 turnovers, and they only managed to convert a single field goal in the first quarter and just three in the second.
Wyoming-bound guard Zoey Blackwell led the Middleton charge with another box-score-stuffing night of 14 points, nine rebounds, six assists, eight steals and two blocks. She also provided the highlight of the night, draining a stepback 3-pointer to beat the third-quarter buzzer.
Middleton’s Aysha Fried added 11 points, and Cadence Steele chipped in 10 points and three steals in the dominant victory.
Sophomore Devry Huff (11 points) and senior Addie Lee (10 points) did the bulk of the damage for Mountain View (14-9), which drops into the losers’ bracket and faces Timberline in an elimination game at 1 p.m. Saturday at Owyhee.
EAGLE 53, CAPITAL 23: After upsetting eventual state champion Owyhee in last year’s district tournament semifinals, the Mustangs knew the stakes were high Thursday as the No. 3 seed going against the No. 6.
Eagle made sure there were no hiccups.
The Mustangs (20-2) scored 12 unanswered points to open the game and triggered the running-clock mercy rule on their way to a victory over Capital (13-10).
“The playing field is always even in districts and state,” Eagle junior Berkley Jones said. “It doesn’t matter who’s seeded what. Everyone comes to play, and you have to bring your best if you want to go far.”
Jones, a reigning 6A All-Idaho first teamer, dropped a double-double of 29 points and 12 rebounds in the win, pushing the Mustangs to a 32-10 lead at the half and a 44-14 advantage in the closing seconds of the third quarter on her third of four 3-pointers in the game.
“The great thing about our team is we don’t have to tell them a ton as coaches, just because of who they are,” Eagle coach Jeremy Monroe said. “They have high IQs. They’re great teammates. They work their tail off.”
Junior Taya Nelson added 11 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals for the Mustangs, and fellow junior Nicole DeVries totaled nine rebounds, one block and one point.
Capital was paced by freshman guard Amiyah Orelus off the bench with seven points. Senior guard Miriam Stafford had five points, and senior forward McKenna Chavez added four points and four rebounds.
This story was originally published February 5, 2026 at 11:06 PM.
