Trojans get shot at Eagle, state title
NAMPA — All Tyler McCliment-Call had to do when she caught the ball in the final moments of Friday’s state 5A semifinal game was simple.
Go blank.
It just wasn’t an empty possession either.
McCliment-Call hit a corner 3-pointer with 14.7 seconds remaining, pushing the Post Falls Trojans past the Borah Lions of Boise 47-45 at the Ford Idaho Center and into the state title game for the first time since 2013.
“It’s a play originally called for Melody (Kempton), but they collapsed on her,” said McCliment-Call, a sophomore. “So I took my shot and it went in.”
As for watching it go through the basket?
“I don’t even know, it was kind of blank,” McCliment-Call said. “It felt just like shooting it in a gym.”
Post Falls (23-2) will face Eagle (26-0) in tonight’s 5A title game, set for 7 p.m. PST at the Ford Idaho Center. Borah (19-6) faces Mountain View (18-8) of Meridian in the third-place game today at Ridgevue High in Nampa.
“She’s been really good all year long,” Post Falls coach Marc Allert said of McCliment-Call. “She’s played really, really well in the last two games and scored for us. Right now, she’s playing with a lot of confidence and we set that play up for her knowing that she’s playing with that confidence. She did her job and knocked it down.”
Borah had a chance to tie the game in the final moments, but a shot went off the backboard and into the hands of Macky Morris of Post Falls. After a foul, Morris inbounded the ball to Kempton, who ran out the remaining 1.8 seconds.
“In that timeout before that, I told everyone to block out,” Allert said. “And I told Macky, you’re getting this rebound. And she did and got a big rebound late in the game. She’s the kind of kid that can impact a game without shooting the ball. She just makes so many extra plays and had some huge rebounds tonight.”
“I was just more like, ‘just get it,’” said Morris, who finished with five rebounds in the game. “Whatever I had to do, just get it.”
Kempton, the Gonzaga signee, had 15 points and 10 rebounds for Post Falls.
“We had a lot of confidence in that final play and have ran it before,” Kempton said. “When Macky got the ball at the end of the game, I just bolted to the other end of the court and tried to run off as much time as I could. Once I did that, I knew that game was ours.”
Borah had beaten Post Falls in their previous two meetings in the TimberLion tournament in Boise (66-51 in 2016 and 44-38 in 2015).
“It was the same thing coach (Allert) and I talked about before the game,” Borah coach Jason Weiler said. “It’s kind of like a grudge match between two teams that have been playing the last two to three years. I told him right at the beginning, ‘Haven’t we done this before?’ It was a high-intensity, high-pressure game and both teams were evenly matched.”
Post Falls used a 17-3 run in the first half to take a 28-16 halftime lead. Borah countered by outscoring Post Falls 20-10 in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 38-36 after the third quarter.
“We just play a couple of different styles,” Weiler said. “They had a good first half and we did what we needed to do to get back in the game in the second half. The girls played their butts off and had a chance to win it, but what a great shot by No. 21 (McCliment-Call). Post Falls is just a great team. It’s well deserved.”
Eagle, ranked in the top 25 nationally by USA Today for much of the season, needed overtime to beat Mountain View 54-53 in the semifinals.
Borah 10 6 20 9 — 45
Post Falls 19 9 10 9 — 47
BORAH — Geis 4, Gibbons 0, Jones 7, Thabach 7, Clayton 0, Bolt 20, Geritz 7. Totals 18-44 6-10 45.
POST FALLS — Gleaves 0, Morris 0, Gardiner 2, Brennan 5, T. McCliment-Call 24, J. McCliment-Call 0, Kempton 15, Parks 1. Totals 19-51 6-12 47.