STATE GIRLS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTS: Strength in numbers

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

And through their injuries, the Timberlake Tiger girls basketball, no matter who or where, have stepped in and found a way to keep the Tigers on the right path.

"They've been a tough group," said Matt Miller, who is in his 10th year as Timberlake High coach. "We've had some injuries and only had five of the 11 kids play in all of our games. We've had a lot of different lineups and adversity that way, and needed some kids to step up and move into roles that we didn't think they'd have to fill at the start of the season."

Timberlake - the top-ranked team in the state 3A media poll for most of the season - opens the state tournament today at 12:15 p.m. PST against the Fruitland Grizzlies at Skyview High in Nampa.

Fruitland was ranked third in the final media poll.

At 19-3, it's the most wins by the team entering the state tournament. In its previous meeting at the state tournament against Fruitland, Timberlake won 53-27, also at Skyview High.

"In the long run, through those injuries, we became a deeper team," Miller said. "We had some kids that filled some roles when we needed them and became deeper because of them getting that experience."

Timberlake - which only has one senior on this year's roster - has advanced to the state title game in their last three trips to state in 2011, 2012 and 2014.

"One thing that we forget is how young we really are," Miller said. "We've got the one senior (Reina Powell), three sophomores (Allison Kirby, Keelie Lawler, Jacquelyn Mallet) and three freshmen (Lilly Kelley, Shelby Starr, Kayle Jezek) that play a lot for us."

Juniors Payten Rhodes, Anna Gardom and Carleen Simpson round out the roster for Timberlake.

"This is the deepest team I've ever had," Miller said. "At the start of the season, I thought we'd be six or seven deep. But with those injuries, those others girls stepped up and played great. We're not afraid to play all 10 if we have to. I've never had a team this deep."

Timberlake has won 9 of its last 10 games.

"To us, it doesn't matter who's in the game," Kirby said. "Everyone knows how to work hard, do their job, and knows how to get it done. And they do it. We're all a family. We spend a lot of time together and trust each other with anything."

Kirby is one of the few that hasn't missed a game this season.

"It was really tough without Keelie out there," Kirby said. "She's been one of my best friends since the third grade. It's tough to play without your partner in crime out there."

Kirby, Lawler and Rhodes were starters on last year's state runner-up.

"I think having that experience from last year will help us a lot," Rhodes said. "We've got those three freshmen that need to get adjusted to that setting, but they're not usually affected by anything. I think that experience from last year will be helpful for us."

Priest River, which Timberlake beat 46-26 in the District 1 championship game, advanced to state after beating Weiser 42-26 in a play-in game on Saturday in Grangeville.

"I was happy to get this one done," Miller said following the district championship game. "This is more stressful than state sometimes. Hopefully we'll have a good week of practice and start preparing to make a run."

Kirby leads the team in scoring at 16.5 points per game, followed by Lawler with 13.5.

"I think we make a lot of open plays because we want to score as a group," Rhodes said. "It's not just one player, it's everyone. We talked at the beginning of the year about the more unselfish you can be, the better we can be as a team. We've been playing as a team, and been successful doing that."