Tired Wolves Tumble Blackfoot Sends Lake City Home Without A State Trophy

You’d expect the losing team in a consolation game to be disappointed it didn’t take home a trophy, a token reward of sorts for its season.

But the winning team disappointed?

Even in victory, in the game for third place in the State A-1 boys basketball tournament Saturday morning, Blackfoot coach Dale Shelley talked about the championship contest.

“The hard part of it is if we’d gotten a couple of breaks down the stretch (Friday) we’d be in the championship game,” said Shelley, whose team raced away from a physically spent Lake City 76-62 to capture a trophy at Idaho State University’s Holt Arena.

Like Blackfoot, Lake City thought it would be playing in the title game. And in their final game the Timberwolves got off to their best start of the three state games.

As the game wore on, though, LC sputtered like a car choking on its final fumes of fuel. And the Broncos picked up their gallop.

The Timberwolves, co-ranked No. 1 with Centennial in the final poll of the season, finished the year at 19-6.

“We were ready and loose, you could tell the way we started the game, but once we had to start getting it going and run with their athletes we just couldn’t do it,” said LC coach Jim Winger, whose fourth team to go to state in four years fell short of capturing a trophy. Two of Winger’s teams have played in the game for third and fifth places.

“They’re (the Broncos) very good obviously, but I think our (lack of) depth showed on the third day,” Winger added. “We basically played six kids the first two (games).”

Even had the Timberwolves played well Saturday they would have had a difficult task beating Blackfoot (21-7).

Blackfoot shot 68 percent in the first half from 2-point range (15 of 22), 64 percent for the game (25 of 39). The Broncos also made 6 of 19 3-point attempts.

Still, LC pushed Blackfoot much of the first half. A three-point play by Scott Hoover off a putback pulled the T-Wolves within one at 33-32 with 1:28 left in the second period.

The Broncos ran off the final eight points of the quarter. Scott Cannon, who scored 14 of his team-high 22 points in the opening half, buried a 3-pointer and broke away for an easy layup off a steal as the clock expired to give Blackfoot a 41-32 lead at halftime.

The second half was all Blackfoot - a seeming non-stop parade of layups and shots in the key.

A 3-pointer by Cannon to open the third quarter extended Blackfoot’s lead to 44-32. A 19-foot jumper by Hoover and a layup by Mike Thompson allowed the T-Wolves to cut the lead under double digits at 44-36 at the 5:38 mark. But the Broncos stretched their lead to double figures and it would stay there the rest of the game.

A three-point conversion by Cannon gave Blackfoot its largest advantage at 57-38 with 1:12 remaining before the fourth quarter.

Winger emptied his bench in the final period, and senior Joe Everson took advantage of his first state playing time. He scored 11 points in 9 minutes. Hoover led with 23 points and seven rebounds and Jon Chatfield had 13.

Landon Kesler and Corey Dahle supported Cannon with 19 and 14 points, respectively.

Thompson, who played in his third state tourney as Winger’s starting point guard, thought LC played from behind the whole tournament. He was right. And it took a toll.

“I feel pretty lucky to come here three times with Coach Winger and Coach (Dwight) Wilson,” Thompson said.

Like his players, Winger will look back on the season with fond memories. He also refused to use his team’s sluggishness as an excuse Saturday.

“I still love this team a lot; (the loss) doesn’t change anything,” Winger said. “I thought Highland, Blackfoot and Rigby stood out in this tournament. I know we’re one of the best five (in state). We had a helluva year.”

Blackfoot 76, Lake City 62

Blackfoot 21 20 16 19 - 76

Lake City 14 18 9 21 - 62 BLACKFOOT Rammell 0, Jackman 3, Elison 0, Kesler 19, Hamilton 1, Thomas 4, Cannon 22, Dahle 14, Packer 7, Wilson 0, Humpherys 6, Jackson 0.

LAKE CITY Camantigue 0, Thompson 4, Everson 11, Keefer 0, Bemis 0, Chatfield 13, Scharnhorst 2, Barlow 2, Hoover 23, Bryan 0, Beadell 5, Asper 2.

Championship

In the championship game played before a crowd of about 10,000, Highland of Pocatello pulled off a dramatic finish, 64-61, as Rigby was denied a state championship for a second straight year.

Rigby led by one and was 15 seconds away from clutching the state title trophy when the Rams literally stole the championship away from the Trojans.

First, the Rams, State A-1 Division I champions in football this year, got their top shooter to the foul line with eight seconds left when they ran a Rigby player into screening Tennison Tripple.

Tripple added Oscar-like acting to his fall to the court. Then he stepped to the free throw line and made both ends of a one-and-one situation to give Highland a 62-61 lead.

After a timeout, Highland guard Joe Green picked the pocket of Rigby’s Ross Erickson, who had taken an inbounds pass under Highland’s basket. Erickson fould Green.

Green made the double bonus free throws to clinch the win.

Highland ends the season at 20-6 while Rigby stops at 20-7. Shane Griggs led four Rams in double figures with 17 points. Jeremie Berrett had 23 for Rigby.

Eagle 57, Centennial 54

The consolation title game was a rematch of the District 3 championship, and ended the same way. Eagle (15-11), in its first year of existence, held 1995 state player of the year Jon Harris to less than half the 38 points he had on Friday when Centennial (20-6) beat Meridian.

The score was 40-40 with 6:51 left before Sweaney put back a couple of offensive rebounds to help the Mustangs to a 48-46 lead. Eagle’s lead was up to six when senior Jake Doherty hit a field goal with three minutes left.

The Patriots came back and trailed only 56-54 with 42 seconds left. But Hordemann hit one of two free throws with 12 seconds remaining and Centennial missed two 3-point field goal attempts in the closing seconds.

Sweaney had 11 points and Hordemann 9 for Eagle. Centennial got 17 from Harris.

, DataTimes