Loper’s 33 points lead PF to third

NAMPA, Idaho – What a difference 17 hours made for the Post Falls High girls basketball team Saturday morning.

After playing perhaps their worst game of the season Friday evening in the semifinals, the Trojans made sure they took a trophy home.

Streaky-shooting sophomore Katelyn Loper hit her first six shots on her way to a career-high 33 points as Post Falls coasted past the Twin Falls Bruins 69-53 at Nampa High School to capture third place in the State 5A tournament.

Post Falls (21-4) looked like the team that captured the Region I title the week before.

“I’m so proud of the girls after last night,” Post Falls coach Chris Johnson said. “We just felt like we didn’t play our game whatsoever. They came out today ready to play. That quick start was really crucial to us. If we’d come out sluggish like we were last night, I don’t know if we would have got it rolling.”

The Trojans can thank Loper for jump-starting them. Barely three minutes into the game, she had made four shots to stake Post Falls to a 12-2 lead.

Loper made 14 of 20 shots and 4 of 5 3-pointers to go with three blocked shots, three rebounds and two steals. She surpassed the previous career high of 27 points she scored in an early loss this year to Coeur d’Alene.

“She came out with that look in her eye where she was in her zone,” Johnson said.

Whether Loper realized it or not – and she claims she didn’t – she hit a groove early and never swayed from it. She had 21 points by halftime.

“Honestly, I just threw them up there and they went in,” she said. “I couldn’t say that I was really feeling it.”

Still, as hot as Loper was in the first half, the Trojans needed two free throws from Aynslee Stuart with 6 seconds left before halftime to take a 32-31 lead into intermission.

Johnson was more than a tad concerned.

“We were losing vision on them a lot,” Johnson said. “We had defensive lapses where we just lost track of them.”

3A

The Kellogg Wildcats (18-4), playing without Intermountain League MVP Amanda Seeling, fell to Fruitland 45-28 in the consolation game at Middleton High School.

Seeling, a 6-foot-2 junior post who averaged 17.8 points and 12 rebounds per game, injured a knee in the third quarter of Kellogg’s win Friday. She didn’t play against Fruitland for precautionary reasons.