Slow start, big finish. Owyhee rallies for 5th straight district basketball title
Centennial did everything right early Friday night.
The Patriots came out on fire, forced their opponent to settle for 3-pointers and took control of the 6A District Three Tournament championship game.
But none of that mattered in the end.
The Owyhee boys basketball juggernaut crushed the Patriots 65-42 at Downtown Boise’s Idaho Central Arena, absorbing the early onslaught before running away with the Storm’s fifth straight district title since the school opened five years ago.
That championship streak now stands as the longest in the Southern Idaho Conference since at least 1945, as far back as the Idaho Statesman’s records date.
“I keep trying to tell our guys we can’t take this for granted. Because it’s hard to do, and we kind of do sometimes,” Owyhee coach Andy Harrington said.
“But I’m super thrilled. We have a lot of great players. Our guys sacrifice for championships, and that (means) from scoring to starting to playing time to whatever.”
Centennial (20-3) led by as many as 11 points in the first half and still held a 10-point lead with 51 seconds left before halftime. But Owyhee (18-6) closed the half on a 7-0 run, and it was all downhill from there.
Jakobe Judd drained a 3-pointer with 5 seconds left to cut the deficit to five, and Owyhee stole an extra possession when Kaden Rogers poked loose an inbound pass 2.1 seconds left. Rogers then sank a buzzer-beater off the inbound pass, and Owyhee carried that momentum into the second half.
The Storm stretched their run to 15-0 before Centennial finally got on the second-half scoreboard with 4:22 left in the third quarter. But Owyhee didn’t stop there, forcing five turnovers in the frame to turn the game into a layup drill and dunk show.
“They were hitting shots early because they’re not tired,” Owyhee senior Canaan Magness said. “But it’s a 32-minute game. We’re going to wear on their best players all game.
“... That translated throughout the whole game. They started getting tired. We rotate our guys, and throughout the whole game we had energy to keep going. So we’re throwing haymakers all game.”
Those haymakers stretched into the fourth quarter as Owyhee extended its run to 35-3 before Centennial’s next field goal with 4:47 left in the fourth quarter and the game already out of reach.
The Patriots entered Friday with the 6A classification’s top-scoring offense (67.3 ppg). But with Centennial’s leader in rebounds, assists, steals and blocks (Henry Johnson) out with an ankle injury, Owyhee held the Patriots to a season-low 42 points, including just 12 in the second half.
“We got sped up, and then we kind of fed into what they do,” Centennial coach Josh Aipperspach said. “We were taking quick shots, and then that leads into their transition game.
“They’re a good ball club. And if you give them easy buckets, it makes them even better.”
Senior point guard Logan Haustveit led the Owyhee onslaught with 12 points, eight rebounds and six assists. But the Storm also displayed the depth that’s fueled their 12-game winning streak.
Magness added 10 points, Ty Read and Braylon Larson each finished with eight, and Owen Brown chipped in seven points.
“That’s just what our team is. We’re so deep,” said Haustveit, the only returning starter from last year’s state championship squad. “Honestly, all 12, 13 of us can play and start at a high level.
“I think that just shows, again, how hard we work, how connected and how together this team is.”
6A STATE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT NEXT WEEK
The victory clinches Owyhee the No. 1 seed for next week’s state tournament at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa. The Storm will enter as the clear favorite after winning a state championship in three of their four previous seasons.
Centennial will likely hold onto the No. 2 seed despite Friday’s loss. But Idaho uses a private formula from MaxPreps.com rankings to seed its state tournament. And those seeds and first-round matchups won’t become official until Sunday.
Other state tournament qualifiers from the Treasure Valley include Timberline (16-9), Kuna (18-6) and Capital (15-11).
This story was originally published February 27, 2026 at 10:25 PM.
