The Post Falls Trojans will play for the state championship tonight when they take on the No. 1-ranked and favored Eagle Mustangs. The game can be seen via a webstream on Idahosports.com.

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By Jon P. Brown
Correspondent

NAMPA, Idaho -What pressure?
Post Falls High School hasn't won a boys' basketball state championship in
46 years.
After losing the Region I title game to Lake City, some didn't expect the Trojans to vie for the 5A state championship.
Yet here they are: One win away after knocking off 2009 finalist Madison, 78-57, on Friday -- a year after the Bobcats had dispatched the Trojans in the 5A semis.
Post Falls (21-4) meets Eagle at 7 p.m. PST today for the 5A title at the Idaho Center. The Mustangs edged Borah, 45-42, in the late semi.
"I don't think there is much pressure on this team anymore," third-year Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. "I think we were expected to get here and do well at State.
"Now that we've got to the title (game), our guys will play loose. We won't be tight. We won't be nervous. We're just going to do what we do."
By doing what they do, the Trojans leveled all the pressure on Madison (18-8), which seemed overwhelmed by Post Falls'
running-but-by-no-means-gunning style.
"I thought as an individual, we were more athletic, and I thought we were more skilled with the basketball than they are," McLean said. "That's a lot of credit to the challenges that myself and my staff put on the players to get better with the basketball."
You can't get much better than Shawn Reid, the 6-foot-4 senior guard committed to Montana State University.
McLean said Reid lost his original No. 21 jersey earlier this season, but even wearing a No. 10 that didn't appear in the program, the scorer was "hard to hide", his coach said.
Reid's speed and aggressive play helped Post Falls' frenetic-yet-fluid offense create havoc. Punctuating his dazzling display with a dunk with less than two minutes left, Reid scored a co-game-high 24 points (matching teammate Marcus Colbert) and snagged 10 rebounds.
The Trojans challenged the Bobcats with a pressing offense that eventually hamstrung Madison's leading player, Josh Fuller. He scored 10 of his team's 29 points in just eight first-half minutes because of three fouls.
Racked by foul trouble, he ended with 16 points.
"That's a part of the style of offense we play to help our defense,"
McLean said. "Offensively, we like to attack our opponent on the offensive end to get them in foul trouble, because it's a lot easier to defend a guy sitting on the bench in foul trouble than when a good player is on the floor."
McLean's hoops wisdom goes beyond getting in his opponent's head. He's the perfect team psychologist for his own bunch, calling a seemingly innocuous timeout after two hasty possessions with his squad ahead by 17 points early in the fourth quarter.
"Maybe they felt a little pressure, and I kept preaching to them that the pressure's not on them," McLean said. "They're supposed to play hard.
"The pressure is on myself to get them into the right position."
The Trojans are there.

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