‘Routine’ play forces OT. The BK boys rolled to a district title from there
It was a play the Bishop Kelly boys basketball team has practiced countless times.
But the stakes were much higher on this occasion.
Junior guard Owen Graves handled the inbound pass, then got it back, attacking the basket and drawing in defenders, only to dish off to big man Andrew Johnson for the jumper on the block.
Johnson made the bucket and drew the foul. While he missed his freebie, the basket with 12.9 seconds left sent the game to overtime.
The Knights then outscored Columbia 13-3 in the 4-minute overtime period to win the 5A District Three Tournament championship 70-60 on Friday night at Idaho Central Arena.
It is Bishop Kelly’s 18th district championship since 1989 but first since winning back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023.
“We run that play every day in practice. We rep our inbounds plays all the time,” Jackson said. “I knew that if I was getting it, I was scoring it, and if it was a foul, it was a foul. I was just going up strong and finishing the play. But that was just routine for us.”
Both the Knights (18-6) and Wildcats (17-7) advance to next week’s state tournament, which runs March 5-7 at Rocky Mountain High School in Meridian. Vallivue (18-7) can also qualify for state if it wins a play-in game against Sandpoint on Saturday in Grangeville.
State seeds and first-round pairings will be determined after the final MaxPreps rankings are posted on Sunday.
After losing to Columbia, the No. 1 seed in the district tournament, twice during the regular season, the Knights said they knew they needed to improve their hustle plays and discipline.
The emphasis paid dividends in the rubber match, as BK led by as many as 11 points, 45-34, late in the third quarter, before withstanding a Columbia comeback in the fourth that ultimately led to the OT period.
Columbia outscored Bishop Kelly 20-12 in the fourth quarter, getting nine points from junior forward Max Keller. The Wildcats had a chance at the game-winning bucket in the closing seconds of regulation, but junior point guard Tavin Jones’ 3-point attempt bounced off the front of the rim, over the glass and out of bounds.
“We’ve just been in a lot of close games. Honestly, our conference is so tough this year,” Bishop Kelly coach Andrew Ammann said. “Man, It feels like every game has been close. So, we get down a little bit, or it’s close, things don’t go our way, we’re used to that. They just keep fighting. They just keep playing, just keep trusting.”
Bishop Kelly held Columbia without a basket until there were just 35 seconds left in overtime. Meanwhile, the Knights converted 7-of-12 at the free-throw line to pull away.
Sophomore guard Nick Hebert and senior guard Conor Goss led BK with 18 points apiece, while Johnson chipped in 11 points and six rebounds.
Jones and Keller each had 16 points for Columbia, and sophomore forward Marcus DeLeon added 10 points, six assists and four rebounds.
This story was originally published February 27, 2026 at 11:53 PM.
