Wallace, Kootenai girls fall at state

NAMPA, Idaho – The North Star League girls basketball teams had inauspicious openers in the State 1A tournament Wednesday.

Wallace and Kootenai lost games they could have won despite playing less than their ability. It was especially disappointing for Wallace, the state runner-up last year.

Shoshone rallied from a seven-point deficit to knock off Wallace 33-29 at Nampa High School, while North Gem pulled out a 38-35 decision over Kootenai at Columbia High School.

The NSL teams will have to win two games to play for a trophy. In loser-out games this afternoon, Kootenai (18-4) will take on Hagerman (20-5) at 12:15 PST and Wallace (12-11) faces Cascade (21-4).

In other openers, Richfield (23-1) beat Council (17-8) 56-34; Mackay (16-5) defeated Greenleaf Friends (14-10), 46-26; Lapwai (23-1) edged Hagerman 47-43; defending champ Garden Valley (19-1) thumped Prairie (15-10) 66-29; Raft River (18-5) handled Rimrock (20-3) 59-28; and Genesee (17-7) beat Cascade 33-32.

Shoshone 33, Wallace 29: After playing one of its worst halves this season, the Miners adjusted to the Indians’ box-and-one defense on senior point guard Cara Hayman.

Hayman scored just two points, 14 less than her average, and those came in first half from the free-throw line. She missed all six of her field-goal attempts. The Miners used a 10-4 run in the final 4 minutes of the third quarter to take a 25-20 lead into the fourth quarter.

Hayman drove into the key early in the fourth period, and when the defense collapsed to help, she dished her best pass of the game to senior post Lisa Carver, who made the wide-open basket to give the Miners a 27-20 lead with 6:54 to go.

Shoshone, which hadn’t scored since the 2:40 mark of the third quarter, answered with two baskets, pulling within 27-25 when Kori Bingham, the Indians’ lone senior, hit a 3-pointer from the corner.

That’s when Wallace coach Kirby Krulitz called a timeout. He wanted his players to look for backdoor opportunities or otherwise take some time off the clock. The strategy backfired as the Miners rushed a couple of shots and committed two key turnovers as precious time ticked away.

Hayman wasn’t second-guessing her coach, but she thought the delay tactic slowed down the momentum that allowed the Miners to build the lead in the first place.

“We should have just kept pushing it at them,” Hayman said.

Shoshone tied it at 27-all when junior post Shaynee Gulliford got behind Wallace’s 2-3 zone with 2:31 to go.

Wallace scored its final basket with 32 seconds left. The Indians secured the win when the Miners suffered their final turnover 9 seconds later.

It looked as if Shoshone’s gimmick defense was going to backfire when Bingham, who was a starter on the team that lost to Wallace in the semifinals last year, picked up three fouls guarding Hayman in the first 6 minutes. But junior guard Myka Medlock took over the role as chaser and continued to make things difficult for Hayman.

“They wouldn’t even let me touch the ball,” Hayman said. “It makes it kind of hard when your point guard can’t set up the offense. It was frustrating because not only were they guarding me, they were holding onto me.”

North Gem 38, Kootenai 35: The Warriors appeared flat-footed and standing around many times in the first half.

“We didn’t look very excited to play,” Kootenai coach Doug Napierela said. “We didn’t hit our shots. We had plenty of opportunities, plenty of looks. Just nothing fell.”

Kootenai made just 29.3 percent of its shots (12 of 41).

“We had chances, especially in the first half …” Napierela said. “They played good defense and caused us some offensive frustrations.”