Boys state basketball: A Treasure Valley team will play in every championship game
Friday was a banner day for high school boys basketball in the Treasure Valley. A Boise-area team earned a spot in every state championship Saturday.
Below is a recap of the day’s highlights.
You can also see all the scores and updated brackets here.
STATE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHUPS
All four title games are at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.
- 5A: Meridian (19-1) vs. Lake City (18-6), 7 p.m.
- 4A: Middleton (22-4) vs. Preston (19-7), 4:30 p.m.
- 3A: McCall-Donnelly (11-2) vs. Marsh Valley (20-5), 2 p.m.
- 2A: Ambrose (21-2) vs. St. Maries (22-1), 11:30 a.m.
STATE TOURNAMENT HEADLINES
Meridian rolls again: The Warriors lived up to their No. 1 ranking one more time, cruising past Madison 66-56 to make the 5A championship.
Middleton rallies: The Vikings mounted a fourth-quarter rally to beat Hillcrest 53-47 and reach their first 4A state final.
Cinderella run continues: McCall-Donnelly beat Snake River 60-51 to advance to its first state final in program history.
Ambrose is back: A new classification didn’t slow down the Archers. The defending 1A Division I champ routed Wendell 77-35 to make the 2A championship.
Buzzer-beater sends St. Maries to finals: Down by two points with 0.6 seconds left, Colby Renner sank a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer from 35 feet to lead the Lumberjacks to a 45-43 win over North Fremont.
Garden Valley wins title: Senior Covy Kelly scored 45 points, breaking his own 1A Division II scoring record, to lead the Wolverines to their first state championship.
5A STATE TOURNAMENT
Meridian 66, Madison 56: The Warriors raced out to an 11-2 lead, led by as many as 17 and never trailed to qualify for the state finals for the first time since 2001.
Meridian finished the night shooting 21-for-39 (54%) from the floor, and four players finished in double figures.
Brody Rowbury racked up 17 points and 10 rebounds. Joe Mpoyo also scored 17 points. And McKay Anderson and Colby Homer each finished with 11.
Meridian spent the entire season as the 5A classification’s No. 1-ranked team. But the Warriors are far from a traditional power. Their last state championship came in 1992, a drought Meridian will try to end at 7 p.m. Saturday against Lake City.
Lake City 65, Boise 50: The Timberwolves (18-6) out scored Boise 36-14 in the second half to reach the finals for the first time since 2002 and second time in program history.
Boise (8-7) jumped out to a 14-4 lead in the first quarter and led 39-29 in the opening minutes of the third quarter. But leading scorer and rebounder Jack Payne fouled out with 5:31 left in the fourth with the game already slipping away. Lake City then finished on an 18-4 run.
Three Timberwolves finished in double figures, including sophomore Blake Buchanan (19 points), sophomore Kolton Mitchell (17 points) and senior Jack Kiesbury (13 points).
Whitt Miller paced Boise with 19 points, and Cory Cadwell chipped in 12.
Boise will face Madison in the third-place game at noon Saturday. A win would give the Brave their best finish and first state trophy since finishing third in 1997.
Eagle 44, Mountain View 42: Senior Jason Janish sank a 4-foot fadeaway at the buzzer to give the Mustangs their only lead in a consolation semifinal.
Seth Galbraith missed a corner 3 in the final seconds that would have given Eagle (14-8) the lead. But Janish grabbed the offensive rebound and put it back up to finish with a game-high 17 points.
Noah White racked up 11 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals for Mountain View, which closes the year 10-10.
Rigby 70, Rocky Mountain 50: The Grizzlies never led and went two-and-out at state, snapping their streak of six straight years with some kind of a state tournament trophy.
Sophomore Drew Fielder scored 18 points and grabbed six rebounds to lead Rocky Mountain (15-5). Kaden Dabell paced Rigby with 18 points, and teammate Jakobe Jones added 16 off the bench.
The loss was the final game for Rocky Mountain coach Dane Roy, who leaves the program with a 200-53 (.790) record. He will become the athletic director at West Ada’s newest high school, Owyhee, in the fall.
4A STATE TOURNAMENT
Middleton 53, Hillcrest 47: Tyler Medaris rode to the rescue in the fourth quarter, scoring 13 of his game-high 27 points in the frame to lead the Vikings to a come-from-behind win.
Medaris gave Middleton (22-4) its first lead by draining a 3-pointer with 4 minutes left, then scored his team’s final six points to send the Vikings to their first 4A state championship game and first overall since 2004.
“He was a beast,” Middleton coach Andy Harrington said. “He just took over.”
The win sets up a rematch with Preston, which has knocked Middleton out of championship contention each of the past two years, including a 51-50 win in last year’s semifinals.
“We owe them,” Medaris said. “They’ve knocked us out of the state tournament, I don’t know how many years in a row. But it’s too many.”
Merit Foote added 10 points for Middleton, which held Hillcrest (19-9) scoreless the final 3 minutes to complete the comeback.
Preston 38, Bishop Kelly 36: Braden Hess muscled in a contested layup off the glass with 1.3 seconds left to send the Indians (18-7) to the finals for the sixth straight year.
Bishop Kelly trailed throughout until Keegan Croteau chased down a long pass for a fastbreak layup with 2:16 left. But the advantage was short-lived as Hess drained a 15-footer to tie the game and set up the last-second dramatics.
Hess finished with 12 points, and Gabe Hammons scored a game-high 13 points for Preston. Kade Rice paced Bishop Kelly with 12 points, and Blake Hawthorne added 11 points. The Knights trailed by as many as 11 before rallying.
Bishop Kelly (17-6) will face Hillcrest (19-9) in the third-place game at noon Saturday.
3A STATE TOURNAMENT
McCall-Donnelly 60, Snake River 51: Junior DJ Green poured in 33 points to lead the unranked Vandals (11-2) to another upset.
The win lifts McCall-Donnelly, a 2A school the past 10 years, into their first state championship game in program history.
McCall-Donnelly didn’t play its first game until Jan. 15 due to a district coronavirus policy. But the Vandals have made up for lost time with an underdog tournament run.
Marsh Valley 56, Teton 47: The Eagles (21-5) forced 19 turnovers and led the entire way to return to the finals for the first time since 1995. Marsh Valley’s Payton Howe scored a game-high 17 points, and Bracken Howell added 16 points.
2A STATE TOURNAMENT
Ambrose 77, Wendell 35: The Archers (21-2) shot 54% from the floor and forced 27 turnovers to run away with their semifinal.
Ambrose’s Hudson Hughes led all scorers with 23 points on 7-for-10 shooting, and Ben Blythe added 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting.
The win sends Ambrose to the Idaho Center for the fourth time in eight years.
St. Maries 45, North Fremont 43: The Lumberjacks took the final of 11 lead changes on Colby Renner’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer, spoiling a perfect season and North Fremont’s shot at a third straight state title.
It was Renner’s second attempted shot of the night. He finished with five points, and Eli Gibson scored a game-high 16 points for the Lumberjacks (22-1).
This story was originally published March 5, 2021 at 10:43 PM.
