Time runs out for McCall’s Cinderella season. Ambrose falls one point shy of a title.
The McCall-Donnelly boys basketball team didn’t know if it would get to play any games this year due to the global coronavirus pandemic.
But the Vandals took advantage of their limited opportunities, making a Cinderella run to the 3A state championship game Saturday, where they fell 58-51 to No. 1-ranked Marsh Valley.
The second-place finish is the best in program history for the Vandals (11-3), who made it to state this week for just the second time in 33 years and had never reached the finals until Saturday.
“There were a lot of starts and stops, and waiting and waiting and waiting for the final go-ahead to play with restrictions,” McCall-Donnelly coach Jason Tinney said. “I just didn’t know how that was going to go. To be honest with you, I would have been happy with 2-10 or whatever. I would have been happy just to be on the floor.
“... I don’t know if we could have done any better with the situation.”
McCall-Donnelly took a brief 31-30 lead in the third quarter. But four quick turnovers fueled a 6-0 run for Marsh Valley, and the Vandals could never dig out of that hole.
Junior guard DJ Green, who scored a game-high 21 points, cut the deficit to one point with a 5-foot runner with 3:54 left in the fourth quarter. But the Eagles again answered with a 6-0 spurt to win their first state title since 1988.
Tinney said McCall-Donnelly struggled as Marsh Valley (22-6) rotated defenses, throwing looks the Vandals had limited experience against in this abbreviated season.
“That shows up in these kind of games,” Tinney said. “Your go-to stuff against the 1-2-2 and some of the things we don’t see a lot of, when you’re missing those 10 games, that’s kind of where that shows up.”
McCall-Donnelly senior forward Isaac Speirs added 13 points and 13 rebounds, and junior Ethan Tinney added nine points. Cody Hansen (14 points) and Bracken Howell (12 points) led Marsh Valley.
The pandemic forced McCall-Donnelly to shut down its program after five practices in November when someone connected to the team tested positive for the coronavirus. Then, Valley County tipped into the red category of community spread, the highest in Central District Health.
McCall-Donnelly School District policy didn’t allow any of its teams to play while the county remained in the red. But it eventually cleared the Vandals, who played their first game Jan. 15.
McCall-Donnelly rushed through a nine-game regular season, playing just one non-conference contest. It was far from the season anyone planned. But seven weeks later, the Vandals finished as the best team in program history.
“The way the kids have overcome, time after time after time, is just the hallmark of a great group of character kids,” Tinney said. “That’s kind of what we leaned on all year.”
Teton takes third: The Timberwolves routed Snake River 59-39 for some state hardware. Xander Vontz led Teton (20-5) with 15 points and nine rebounds.
Fruitland falls in consolation final: Kimberly erased a seven-point halftime deficit to force overtime, eventually taking down the Grizzlies 52-50 in double overtime for the consolation title.
Dylan Watson scored a game-high 19 points for Fruitland (17-8), and Hyrum Lindsey added 17 points and seven rebounds.
Jackson Cummins led Kimberly (14-11) with 17 points.
Ambrose’s comeback falls short in 2A finals
In their first season of 2A competition, Ambrose proved it belonged. But the Archers’ bid to win consecutive state championships fell just short Saturday at the Ford Idaho Center.
St. Maries junior post Tristan Gentry had 16 points, 11 rebounds and made three critical plays in crunch time as the Lumberjacks eked out a 51-50 win to earn their first state title since 1960.
“It was a lot tougher competition. But to be here playing in the Idaho Center the same year we moved up, it says a lot about our team’s character and will,” said junior guard Johnny Sugarman, who led Ambrose with 20 points.
Sugarman and senior guard Ben Blythe — who scored all 19 of his points in the second half — nearly led Ambrose (21-3) to a comeback victory after the Archers trailed by 10 in the third quarter. But Gentry helped the Lumberjacks close the game on a 6-0 run by rebounding two missed foul shots and converting them into a putback layup and two free throws of his own.
After Sugarman missed the potential go-ahead runner with 3.8 seconds left, Gentry took the inbounds pass, raced to half court before anyone could foul him and threw the ball toward the rafters as the buzzer sounded.
“That’s a really good team. They deserved to win,” Ambrose coach Ken Sugarman said. “They made one more hoop than us. Sometimes, you just need the ball to bounce your way one more time.”
Randie Becktel chipped in 10 points and seven rebounds for Saint Maries (23-1), which used its height advantage to out-rebound Ambrose 32-21. Colby Renner, who hit a miracle, buzzer-beating 3-pointer Friday to send the Lumberjacks to the final, added nine points, and Eli Gibson scored eight.
Ambrose, which won 1A Division I championships in 2020 and 2016, got almost all of its offense from Sugarman and Blythe. Leading scorer Hudson Hughes was plagued by foul trouble and made only one shot — a big 3-pointer that gave Ambrose a 50-45 lead with 2:38 remaining.
Unfortunately for the Archers, those were their last points of the game. Thanks to three defensive stops and the clutch offensive rebounding of Gentry, the Lumberjacks prevailed.
“It’s surreal, it’s overwhelming,” Gentry said. “We’re fighters, we play great team ball, and we don’t care if anyone scores 20 points. We just want to win.”
North Fremont rebounds: The Huskies bounced back from their first loss to top Wendell 56-40 in the third-place game. Max Palmer scored 20 points, and Jordan Lenz added 16 for North Fremont (22-1).
Melba falls short of a trophy: Bear Lake (18-10) edged the Mustangs 43-42 in the consolation final behind Owen Teuscher’s 16 points.
Braden Volkers scored 13 points, and Josh Leavitt added 10 points and 10 rebounds for Melba (20-6).
This story was originally published March 6, 2021 at 5:03 PM.
