Eagle cruises to 6A girls basketball district title, just misses historic feat
Eagle didn’t enter the 6A District Three girls basketball tournament as the top seed. But it left no doubt about who was the conference’s best team the past two weeks.
The third-seeded Mustangs steamrolled Boise 65-41 in the district championship game Friday night at downtown Boise’s Idaho Central Arena, capping a tournament run that saw Eagle rack up victories by 30, 26 and 24 points ahead of next week’s high school state playoffs.
Eagle (22-2) triggered the running-clock mercy rule in first-round and semifinal victories, and the Mustangs fell just shy of invoking it again Friday. Berkley Jones hit the last of her five 3-pointers with 3:35 left for a 28-point lead, but Eagle couldn’t get the final basket to complete a mercy-rule sweep of the tournament.
“I think we’ve really hit our peak right at the right time,” Eagle junior guard Taya Nelson. “A lot of teams can’t say that, and that’s really, really impressive, especially for a high school team.”
Jones carried Eagle offensively again Friday, pouring in a game-high 28 points to lead the Mustangs to their first district title since 2018. She shot 11-for-17 from the floor, including 5-for-9 behind the 3-point line, to finish the tournament averaging 33 points per game.
Eagle and Boise (16-9) traded the lead seven times in the first half. But Eagle closed the half on an 8-0 run, then stretched that streak to 20-0 as Jones erupted to start the third quarter.
She scored 10 straight points to build Eagle a 17-point lead with 3:39 left in the quarter. But the Mustangs were only getting started as Bella Thompson, Trinity Holsinger and Amelia Mitchell added 3-pointers of their own to stretch the Mustangs’ run to 29-3.
Jones may have filled the box score as the only Mustang in double figures. (Thompson and Holsinger each added eight points.) But Jones also provided the spark Eagle needed as it drained 9-of-16 3-pointers in the second half to pull away.
“When we hit, I think we’re a really dangerous team,” Jones said. “So if we can figure out how to swing the ball and get those wide-open looks from 3, it’ll be really tough (to beat us).”
Meanwhile, Boise struggled behind the 3-point arc and couldn’t keep up. The Brave sank their first two 3-pointers, triggering memories of the shooting that upset top-seeded Middleton in the district semifinals. But Boise only converted 1-of-11 long-range shots the rest of the night to finish 3-for-13.
Senior guard Libby Nelson made two of those 3-pointers for a team-high 12 points, while junior forward Nya Pellant-Latham chipped in nine points and six rebounds.
BOISE-AREA TEAMS TO 6A STATE TOURNAMENT
Boise and Eagle already clinched their state tournament berths by making the district championship game, leaving Friday’s contest as a battle for pride and a last chance to boost their seeding resume.
Idaho will not announce the final seeds until Sunday. But Eagle entered the game No. 1 in the latest MaxPreps.com rankings, and another comfortable victory should only add to its lead atop the 6A classification.
“The job’s not done,” Eagle coach Jeremy Munroe cautioned. “We’ve got more to do.”
The 6A Southern Idaho Conference will also send Borah (20-5), Middleton (19-4) and Timberline (20-5) to next week’s state tournament at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.
This story was originally published February 13, 2026 at 10:04 PM.
