Eagle needed a hero. Its new point guard stepped up to deliver a 6A state title
Trinity Holsinger spent all of last season in the shadows. But the senior point guard shined on the brightest stage Saturday night.
Holsinger erupted for 23 points to carry Eagle to a 57-48 win over Middleton in the 6A girls basketball state championship game, providing a steady stream of highlights and critical plays for the Mustangs (25-2).
“She’s so unselfish,” Eagle junior Berkley Jones said. “Coming into this season, she could have been like, ‘I’m gonna take all the shots. I deserve to take shots.’
“But she played point guard. She facilitated for us. All the stuff that doesn’t show up in the stats is what she did for our team this year.”
State rules required her to sit out her junior season after transferring from Cole Valley Christian, where she was a first-team all-state selection. But instead of coasting through a lost year, she spent the season running the scout team, proving her worth in practice and building chemistry with the Mustangs.
She stood as Eagle’s third-leading scorer entering the tournament (9.8 ppg), often looking to create for others. Then she took over when the team needed her the most.
Middleton jumped out to a 12-point lead in the first quarter, and it held a nine-point advantage early in the second. But the Liberty signee led a 12-0 run that pulled the Mustangs off the mat, hitting a pair of 3-pointers and a 10-foot floater for the lead.
“I can honestly say I was not worried,” Holsinger said. “Once we kind of started to turn it around in the second quarter, I knew this energy we had, just how we responded, was really going to kind of see us through.”
Eagle and Middleton traded blows the rest of the night. Nursing a six-point lead with 5:11 left, the Mustangs called a timeout and put the ball and their state title hopes in Holsinger’s hands.
Eagle opted to drain the shot clock, looking to limit Middleton’s chances of a comeback. That strategy frittered away plenty of leads. But Holsinger navigated the treacherous waters to deliver the second state title in program history for the school.
On the first possession, she found Ryann Ellsworth for an open 3-pointer at the top of the key, stretching Eagle’s lead to nine. She then delivered the knockout blow with 2:46 left, hitting a left-handed, leaning scoop shot at the shot-clock buzzer for a 10-point advantage.
Middleton never got any closer than six points the rest of the way.
Holsinger finished the night 8-for-14 from the floor, including 5-for-9 behind the 3-point line.
“Her IQ is unbelievable,” Eagle coach Jeremy Munroe said. “You can’t understate what she sees and what she does. And tonight, she decided I need to step up for my team. I need to be that leader. I need to be that player.
“And she was that player. She was that leader. And she did exactly what we needed to do.”
Jones added another worker-like performance, finishing with 13 points and seven rebounds. Ellsworth added eight points, and senior Bella Thompson added a pair of 3-pointers, including a backbreaker with 54 seconds left to make the lead an insurmountable 11.
It all added up to a fitting end to Eagle’s dominant run to bring home its first championship banner since 2019. The Mustangs started the year as the heavy favorite in the 6A Southern Idaho Conference, only to drop a pair of league games and enter the district tournament as its No. 3 seed.
But Eagle closed the season on a 12-game winning streak, regularly invoking the running-clock mercy rule during that run. Middleton stood as the only team to stay within 10 points of Eagle in the past month.
“We, for sure, peaked at the right time,” Jones said. “I think those losses early on in the season were great wake-up calls. I think we wouldn’t be where we are without those two losses.”
MIDDLETON TAKES SECOND PLACE AGAIN
The loss left the Vikings with the second-place trophy for the second straight year.
Middleton took second in the 5A classification last season. Searching for a bigger challenge, the Vikings petitioned up to the state’s top classification this year.
The gamble paid off with an undefeated run through the 6A Southern Idaho Conference, and Middleton added its first two state tournament wins in the largest classification to make it back to championship Saturday at the Idaho Center.
“A lot of people wish they could be in this spot,” Middleton coach Marianne Blackwell said. “Is it the outcome we wanted? No. But nonetheless, I’m so proud of the hard work that they put into to even get here, and so my hat is off to them.
“Honestly, we did all that we could. And the ball just didn’t fall our way.”
Saturday also capped the high school career of Zoey Blackwell. The Wyoming signee and four-year starter went out with a bang, scoring a game-high 26 points, including 10 of her team’s 14 points in the fourth quarter as the Vikings tried to mount a comeback.
She also added five rebounds and four assists. And junior post Megan Stewart recorded a double-double of 11 points and 13 rebounds.
RIGBY 63, COEUR D’ALENE 34: Junior Brinley Larsen racked up 21 points, leading a quartet of Trojans in double figures as Rigby cruised to the third-place trophy.
Rigby (25-1) bounced back from its first loss of the season to hold Coeur d’Alene to 9-for-40 (23%) shooting. The Vikings (22-4) played without junior guard Brookeslee Colvin, who injured her ankle Friday.
BOISE 32, MADISON 27: The Brave kept their trophy streak alive in the consolation final, prevailing in a defensive battle to win their seventh straight state tournament trophy. That run is tied with Prairie (2A) for the longest active streak in Idaho girls basketball.
Junior forward Nya Pellant-Latham posted a double-double of 20 points and 11 rebounds, and Boise (18-10) locked in defensively to hold the Bobcats to a 10-for-48 (21%) shooting performance.
IDAHO 5A GIRLS BASKETBALL STATE CHAMPIONSHIP
POCATELLO 62, SANDPOINT 49: Gonzaga signee Abby Lusk powered the Thunder to a repeat title, recording a double-double of 23 points and 10 rebounds while adding three steals.
Fourth-seeded Pocatello (20-7) built a seven-point advantage at halftime and kept adding to it, leading by as many as 21 points to roll to the Thunder’s second title in program history.
Pocatello’s Madysen Torngren added 14 points and seven rebounds, while Brynlee Pool and Lainey Rogers chipped in seven points each. Junior guard Brecken Mire led second-seeded Sandpoint (21-6) with 20 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
This story was originally published February 21, 2026 at 11:51 PM.
