Reserve Austin powers Vikings to win

NAMPA, Idaho – Nate Clinton deferred Thursday afternoon.

When defending state champ Madison slapped a box-and-one on the 5-foot-7 senior guard, Clinton didn’t get frustrated. That opened the door for a teammate to step up, and sophomore Devon Austin more than obliged.

Austin came off the bench to score a game-high 17 points as the No. 1-ranked Vikings fended off the Bobcats 52-44 in a State 5A boys basketball tournament opener at the Idaho Center.

CdA (21-2) will take on District III champ Eagle (19-5) today at 5:15 p.m. PST in the first of two semifinal games.

Vallivue overwhelmed Lewiston in the second half, pulling away 66-51.

In other openers, Eagle stopped Centennial 61-46 and Highland edged Timberline 64-61.

Clinton and the Vikings were ready for the gimmick defense.

“We’d been working on it in practice all week and I’ve been getting used to it,” said Clinton, who still managed to score 10 points to go with four assists. “The weakness that the box-and-one has is it leaves gaps open.”

Austin smiled when told how many points he scored.

“I just wanted to play hard and didn’t want to lose the first game like last year,” said Austin, who scored 14 points in the second half and made 7 of 9 free throws in the fourth quarter. “At the start of the game I was a little nervous. When I got in I wasn’t.”

Madison coach Bill Hawkins stressed he’s not a gimmick-defense coach. But the plan was to make somebody other than Clinton beat his team.

“You’ve got to hand it to Austin for knocking down some big shots for them,” Hawkins said. “I thought we did a great job of taking Clinton out of it. Austin stepped up and beat us. I was banking my chips on the sophomore because it’s the first game of the state tournament. You got to hand it to him.”

It was easily Austin’s best game of the season, especially considering the gravity of the game.

“I thought Devon Austin stepped up and played like I think Devin’s capable of playing,” CdA coach Kent Leiss said.

A tenacious defensive tone was set early by both teams. CdA used a 2-3 zone that bottled up Madison (15-10) in the first half. The Vikings led 18-13 at halftime.

CdA could have wrapped up the victory sooner than it did in the second half. But the Vikings struggled at shooting layups, and they needed Austin’s free throws in the fourth quarter to finish just over 50 percent at the foul line (20 of 36).

“We looked at the shot chart and we missed six layups in transition – not counting the layups that we missed in the heart of their defense,” Leiss said. “It is very uncharacteristic.

“I think missed layups and those free throws is what kept the game a little closer.”

“We were out of control and didn’t finish,” Clinton said of the missed layups.

Because of the shooting woes, Madison still had hope when Trevor Blanchard hit a jumper to pull the Bobcats within 41-36 with 2:55 to go.

But the Vikings’ hottest stretch at the free-throw line came in the final 2:31 when they made 11 of 16 to hold off Madison.

Madison was whistled for 24 fouls while CdA drew 17.

While the Vikings struggled shooting overall, the one thing that was consistent was their hustle.

“Offense isn’t always there, especially the first game of the tournament,” CdA guard Andrew Prohaska said. “I think (today) we’ll be a lot more ready to go, a lot more focused.”

Vallivue 66, Lewiston 51: The Falcons managed just a 29-28 lead through halftime.

The second half, though, belonged to Vallivue. The Falcons (21-3) had an 18-point lead twice in the fourth quarter.

Ryan Young scored 13 points for Lewiston and Steven Heitzman added 10.

Lewiston (15-8) will face Timberline (17-7) in a loser-out game today.