Owyhee needed a new strategy. It found one to return to the 6A state championship game
Owyhee and Lake City rotated as Idaho’s 6A boys basketball state champions the past three years. And on Saturday, one of them will bring home another title trophy.
No. 1 Owyhee (22-4) and No. 2 Lake City (21-4) both won their semifinal games Friday, setting up a powerhouse battle and a rematch for the championship at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Ford Idaho Center.
Owyhee, the 2022 and ‘24 champs, beat Lake City, the 2023 title winner, by 20 points in the semifinals of its own holiday tournament earlier this season. But as Lake City senior Reese Strawn pointed out, the holidays were a long time ago, and Saturday provides a new opportunity.
“That was December. This is March,” Strawn said. “A lot of things can happen.”
[Related: Semifinal, consolation scoreboard | 6A first-round recap]
IDAHO 6A BOYS BASKETBALL STATE TOURNAMENT SEMIFINALS
OWYHEE 50, TIMBERLINE 42: After rallying late for a first-round victory Thursday, top-ranked Owyhee didn’t waste any time getting started Friday.
The Storm opened the game in a full-court press, forcing four early turnovers to start the semifinals with a 17-4 run. And Owyhee turned to that press again to fuel a 10-0 run in the third quarter as the Storm led the entire way for their 41st straight win over an Idaho opponent.
“We felt like we needed to do a better job of speeding up the game,” Owyhee coach Andy Harrington said. “I think we’re at our best when we can play up and down.
“Everything is matchup-based. Borah and Timberline don’t want to play fast with us. So we felt after Borah, we needed to find a way to create momentum for our guys.”
Rice signee Boden Howell also bounced back after a sluggish opening round. Owyhee’s leading scorer put up 11 points in the first quarter alone, sinking all four shots he attempted, including three 3-pointers, as the Storm built a double-digit lead just 3:18 into the game.
Howell finished with a game-high 16 points, shooting 6-of-9 from the floor.
“I expect nothing less,” Owyhee junior point guard Logan Haustveit said. “He just forgot about yesterday. That’s an off day. You don’t really see Bodey do that a lot. So I knew he was going to come back and have a big day today. That’s just how big of a player he is.”
Owyhee entered halftime leading by nine and extended its lead to 17 points with its third-quarter press. Jayce Allen threw down his second dunk of the tournament on a fast break after blocking a 3-pointer. Haustveit and Howell then both stole passes in the backcourt for easy layups, forcing Timberline to burn another timeout.
“We knew it was coming,” Timberline coach Travis Noble said. “We had talked about it and worked on it today in shootaround. We just didn’t make enough of the right plays against it.
“... We solved it at times. But against a good team, you’ve got to solve it for 32 minutes.”
Howell finished as Owyhee’s only scorer in double digits. But Jordan Allen added nine points off the bench, Haustveit chipped in eight points, and Heath Sasser-Gunson contributed six points and six rebounds.
The Storm spent all season as the state’s No. 1-ranked team, drawing all the attention and headlines. But it also drew everyone’s best shot and all the vile that comes with a perennial winner.
“We hear stuff from different people,” Howell said. “It is what it is, a lot of haters.
“You see it with the (Kansas City) Chiefs and the (Golden State) Warriors. They don’t want the people that win to keep winning.”
Timberline mounted one last rally to threaten a comeback. The Wolves cut the lead to five points on Jacob Heyne’s 5-foot turnaround with 1:40 left. But Timberline couldn’t get any closer as it struggled behind the 3-point line all afternoon.
Timberline started the game 0-for-10 behind the arc before Kole Hudson hit a pair of 3’s in the third quarter. Those were the Wolves’ only treys as they finished 2-for-15 (13%), well below their season average of 36%.
Heyne scored a team-high 15 points, and Alex Ko added 11 for Timberline. The Wolves will face Boise for the third-place trophy at noon Saturday at Centennial. Boise upset Timberline in double overtime in the first round of the district tournament two weeks ago.
“Our whole team is ready to go out there and beat Boise,” Heyne said. “The last time we played them, that one really hurt a lot. And I think we’re ready to come out there and get that trophy.”
LAKE CITY 63, BOISE 60: Boise cut a 16-point, fourth-quarter deficit to one with 1:43 left. But the Brave couldn’t get over the hump to extend their Cinderella run into the state finals.
Lake City’s Cason Miller hit a 15-foot jumper with 1:09 left to give the Timberwolves some breathing room, and Boise missed its final three shots to fall just short of the comeback. That included Luke Soltau’s 3-pointer that clanged off the rim with 3 seconds left, just missing a tie that could have forced overtime.
“They’re resilient,” Boise coach Manny Varela said of his team. “They’re the group of guys that you’d take into battle any day. They are not going to back down from a challenge, and they still won’t.”
Sixth-seeded Boise (12-15) trailed all afternoon as No. 2 Lake City started the game on a 13-0 run and Reese Strawn caught fire in the first half. The senior guard scored 25 of his game-high 27 points before halftime, heading into the break 8-for-9 from the floor, including 6-for-6 behind the 3-point line.
“Reese is an unbelievable basketball player,” Lake City coach James Anderson said. “... When you consider the stage, the final four, this gym and the Boise guards probably being the best defensive guards in the state, that was a special, special first-half performance.”
Boise held Strawn to two points in the second half, assigning 6-foot-8 senior forward Michael Nance to disrupt his quick-release shot. But the Brave didn’t make a run until slapping on a press in the fourth quarter.
The faster pace forced seven turnovers in the final eight minutes and fueled a 16-3 run that brought Boise back to life. Eli Rich and Will Gebert hit back-to-back 3-pointers to make it a three-point game with 1:56 left, then Rich stole the ball and laid it up 13 seconds later to cut the lead to one.
But Rich missed what would have been a game-tying free throw and Boise ran out of gas, failing to score in the final 1:42 to miss out on its first trip to the championship game since 1991.
Soltau scored eight of his team-high 23 points in the fourth quarter, while Thacker (12 points) and Gebert (11 points) also finished in double figures.
Lake City packed the paint with its superior size, taking away driving lanes and daring the 6A SIC’s worst 3-point shooting team (25%) to dial up 3-pointers. The Brave missed their first six and finished the afternoon 8-for-28 (29%) behind the arc. Lake City also outrebounded Boise 37-21.
“If we had backed that up and maybe shot 18 3’s and 10 more shots at the hoop, maybe that would have been a different game,” Varela said. “But you can’t go back and play it again.”
The loss dropped Boise into the third-place game, where it will face Timberline at Centennial High. Few expected Boise to even make the state tournament, let alone contend for a trophy, after it finished the regular season ninth out of 12 teams in the 6A SIC. But a win would earn Boise its first state tournament trophy since 1997, when it also finished third.
“We want something to show for this run that we’ve had,” Soltau said. “And the only way we can do that is go out and play like we have this whole postseason.”
BORAH 53, MERIDIAN 41: The Lions trailed by one point entering the fourth quarter, but erupted for 21 points in the final eight minutes to extend their season.
No. 8 Borah (12-14) advances to face No. 3 Madison for the consolation trophy at 10 a.m. Saturday at Centennial.
Dylan Luekenga led the Lions with 13 points, six rebounds and three assists, while Colton Dennis added 12 points and three assists as Borah avenged a pair of regular-season losses to Meridian.
Tristan Fortin scored 14 points, and TJ Sanor added nine as Meridian closed the season 15-11.
MADISON 54, THUNDER RIDGE 27: The Bobcats locked in defensively, holding their conference rival to single digits in each quarter and a 10-for-40 (25%) shooting to advance to the consolation final against Borah.
Boise State signee Nash Humpherys scored a game-high 15 points for Madison (22-3), and Carter Lerwil added 13 points. Kyler Sparks led Thunder Ridge (13-13) with nine points.
This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 6:53 PM.
