Vikings rally, beat Mavericks

NAMPA, Idaho – Jenna Griffitts claims she rarely looks at the scoreboard.

She didn’t look when the Coeur d’Alene High girls basketball team was trailing 11-2 about 4 minutes into the State 5A tournament loser-out game Friday afternoon.

She didn’t look when the Vikings opened a 40-29 lead 3 minutes into the third quarter.

She didn’t look when the Mountain View Mavericks stormed back to a 51-45 lead early in the fourth quarter.

She finally looked with a couple of minutes remaining after Coeur d’Alene answered the Mavericks’ final run and the Vikings were on their way to a 68-57 victory before a sparse crowd of 300 in the spacious Idaho Center.

“Honestly, I didn’t even look at the scoreboard,” Griffitts said of when her team trailed early. “I kept playing and kept playing and doing what we needed to do to win. I didn’t realize that (CdA led by 11 points) either. I think I looked the last couple of minutes of the game.”

CdA (20-4) can capture the fourth-place trophy this morning when it meets District IV-V-VI champ Highland (22-3) of Pocatello at Skyview High School in Nampa. Tipoff is at 8:15 PST.

It’ll be a familiar matchup for the state title when Borah takes on Boise.

Twin Falls and Centennial will play for third.

In other games Friday, Highland ran away from Timberline 55-32, Borah defeated Twin Falls 61-40 and Boise topped Centennial 37-31.

After Coeur d’Alene’s victory Friday, Griffitts also wasn’t aware of something else. She had no idea she scored a season-high 25 points.

Griffitts made sure she was going to be a factor early, however, matching the nine points she scored in the Viks’ 53-50 overtime loss to Twin Falls the day before by the 7:38 mark of the second quarter.

CdA prevailed, but it was anything but easy. The Mavericks (13-14) showed why a fifth-place finisher in ultra-competitive District III is usually worthy of state berth.

The Viks, who had gotten out to an 8-0 start on Thursday, found themselves trailing 11-2 after making just one of their first eight shots.

CdA needed just 61 seconds to crawl out of the deficit, using an 8-0 spurt to pull within 11-10 with 3:13 remaining in the first quarter.

The game was on at that point as the score was tied six times before CdA went into halftime with a 29-27 lead.

Somehow the Viks managed to escape to intermission despite minor foul problems (three starters had two each), despite giving up way too many uncontested shots in the key and despite 0-for-9 shooting from 3-point range.

CdA got its transition game going to open the second half, riding an 11-2 run to a 40-29 lead when Jackie Lenz capped it with a layup at the 4:59 mark.

Mt. View answered as CdA slipped back into a tentative mode. The Mavs closed out the quarter outscoring the Viks 15-5 to pull within 45-44.

When Mavs guard Jessica Crandell made a 3-pointer to give Mt. View a 51-45 lead, CdA coach Dale Poffenroth called timeout.

“We went and played like we did the first Lake City (regional) game,” Poffenroth said. “We got a little timid and we didn’t do what got us to where we were. So we had the short timeout and reminded them what to do. Then they attacked the basket again. They’re young kids.”

Sophomore guard Lindsey Stark started CdA on a 13-2 run seconds later and freshman guard Ali Johnson hit a 3-pointer that gave the Viks a 58-53 lead with 3:10 remaining, and it was a lead CdA wouldn’t relinquish.

CdA made 22 of 26 free throws. The Viks also scored 25 points off turnovers to the Mavs’ 11.