‘It’s what we do.’ Owyhee, Timberline boys basketball teams ride dominant wins to state
Two 5A Southern Idaho Conference boys basketball teams rolled to dominant wins to earn state tournament berths.
Owyhee checked off its 13th straight victory with a 65-38 victory over Centennial in the opening game of the 5A District Three Tournament semifinals at Capital High last weekend. Then in the nightcap, Timberline earned a 61-42 victory against Middleton.
The Storm and Wolves will face off for the district championship at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Idaho Central Arena in Downtown Boise.
OWYHEE EYES THREE-PEAT
Outside of losses to a trio of California schools, there haven’t been many tense moments for Owyhee this season.
The two-time defending district champions plowed through their 5A SIC schedule, winning by an average of more than 30 points per game. That trend held true again Saturday night against Centennial (16-8).
After losing to Owyhee by 46 points a little more than a week ago, Centennial was once again outgunned. Owyhee opened the game on a 7-0 run and used a 19-3 scoring streak in the second quarter to squash any hope the Patriots had of an upset.
So how have the Storm avoided complacency?
“I feel like it’s just going into every game knowing that upsets can happen, as it happened last year many times,” Owyhee junior Jackson Rogers said. “It’s going in and staying true to who we are, and that’s just being the toughest team and making sure when things go south we just stay together.”
Owyhee held Centennial to just 27.5% shooting and won the rebounding battle 42-22, including 16 offensive rebounds that led to 21 second-chance points.
Junior Jackson Rasmussen registered a double-double of 15 points and 15 rebounds, while also blocking four shots and dishing out three assists for the Storm (20-3).
Owyhee put nine different players on the court, with all nine scoring three or more points. USC-bound senior guard Liam Campbell added 12 points, Rogers had nine points and six boards, and junior Cameron Downie contributed eight points and six rebounds off the bench.
“We try to play nine to 10 guys in our rotation,” Owyhee coach Andy Harrington said. “I’m not surprised that they’re doing that. They’re all very capable players. They’ve all had to sacrifice a ton this year, statistically, to be balanced. It’s what we do.”
Junior guard Payton Knudson led Centennial with 14 points, and fellow junior guard Chase Tibbets chipped in 11 points, four rebounds and four steals. The Patriots fall into the district tournament losers’ bracket, where they will take on Capital (16-8) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Eagle High in a winner-to-state contest.
TIMBERLINE PUNCHES TICKET TO STATE
After a water-soaked postgame celebration, Timberline coach Travis Noble emerged from the locker room looking like he’d just spent an evening in the rain.
The moment was long overdue.
The Wolves knocked off Middleton to advance to the district championship game for just the third time in program history. Timberline last played for a district title in 2007 — losing 63-38 to Mountain View — and won its only championship in 2002 against Eagle.
“I know they wanted it, and they played like they wanted it,” Noble said. “This group’s been around enough, and there were a few guys that weren’t going to let us lose.”
Timberline (20-3) led wire-to-wire in the win, never letting Middleton get closer than seven points in the second half. Junior guard Alex Ko scored eight of his team-high 19 points in the opening quarter and connected on 5-of-11 attempts from 3-point range.
But Ko said the Wolves’ success this season isn’t rooted in their offensive prowess.
“We were going in just knowing that we’re going to hang our hats on defense like always,” Ko said. “It doesn’t matter what happens on offense as long as you get stops.”
Timberline owns the classification’s top defense, limiting opponents to an average of 42.7 points per game.
“We really pride ourselves on that. We work hard at it every day,” Noble said. “It’s a huge part of why we’ve been able to be so successful and it just fits who we are and who our guys are. They do a great job buying in and making it really hard for other teams to score and taking some of the other team’s better players out of the game. But that’s who we are and everybody knows that.”
But the Wolves recognize it will take more than a dominant defense to beat top-ranked Owyhee in the district title game next week. The Storm won the regular-season meeting between the two teams 60-28 on Jan. 27.
“They have a lot of weapons on the floor, and we’ll have to play a really good game to get ‘em,” Noble said. “But I think our guys are up for that challenge. At this point in the year, the teams you play are good, and they’ve earned the right to play in that game. And we’re going to work hard in practice all week and see what we can do on Friday.”
Middleton (14-9), which entered the district tournament as the No. 8 seed, got a game-high 21 points from junior forward Blake Bishop. The Vikings upset No. 2 Meridian 58-49 in the first round to earn a spot in the semifinals. They’ll now take on host Eagle (16-8) at 6 p.m. Tuesday with a spot in the state tournament on the line.
This story was originally published February 18, 2024 at 12:26 AM.
