New Facility A Little Dusty, But Still Grand

We know that basketball is a contact sport.

But hard hats during the opening day of the State A-1 Tournament?

Minutes before Lake City and Eagle christened the new, $12 million Idaho Center - home for at least the next five years to the girls and boys state basketball championships - construction workers wearing hard hats were closing down shop for four days for the arena’s first event.

They’ll return Monday, hoping to put a few more finishing touches on Nampa’s huge civic investment.

The early reviews heard during a walk-through an hour before the tournament tipped off were nearly unanimous: The Idaho High School Activities Association’s decision to find one facility for both the girls and boys tournaments was a good choice.

They rolled out the carpet Thursday, too - literally. Workers put down several yards of indoor-outdoor carpet to cover up the unfinished dirt floor.

The sparkling basketball court, sitting 3 inches above a plywood base, was put down Monday. It was dusty during the opener as custodians swept during every timeout and break between quarters and halves.

The new arena - financed by the City of Nampa, population just more than 35,000 - should be a success. It will serve as home next winter for a new Continental Basketball Association team, the Idaho Stampede. It will also be home to several rodeos.

It will ultimately have a seating capacity of 12,500. But Thursday there were just 5,000 available seats.

That was more than enough for the opener featuring Lake City and Eagle. They could have squeezed another 4,600 in to watch the No. 1-ranked Timberwolves triumph 53-46.

“Hey, we’re just thankful to be playing here today,” IHSAA executive director Bill Young said. “You wait and see it when it’s finished. It will be beautiful.”

Her achin’ back

LC’s 6-foot-4-1/2 junior post Alison Asher figured to draw much attention at the tournament. Especially from opposing teams.

Sure enough, Eagle made sure it had at least a pair of Mustangs around Asher.

She was walking very stiff afterward. Asher’s been playing with a brace around the lower part of her back since early January.

Until Thursday, nobody but her teammates and their parents knew.

“She’s been in a lot of pain,” her father, Jim, an LC assistant said.

For the past two weeks, Asher has been under the care of a chiropractor nearly every day. She was going to receive another treatment after the game.

Although Asher scored just four points against Eagle, she contributed big in other ways. She had five assists and grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds.

“She may look a little frail out there but don’t get too close to those elbows,” quipped LC coach Dave Stockwell.

Six was enough

Barring foul trouble or injury, Stockwell was planning on just playing six kids in the opener. And that’s all he had to play.

He wanted to let the majority of his team making the trip to state for the first time soak things in from the bench. Even the six players who played are young. Point guard Katie Hatrock is the lone senior. Three of the other five are juniors and two are sophomores.

Stockwell figures to play at least two more tonight.

“(The six) are the kids who’ve got us here,” Stockwell said. “But if things go well maybe (tonight) or the next day I might get a chance to get the other kids’ feet wet.”

, DataTimes