No sweep for Post Falls

NAMPA — It was the 3-pointers that helped sink Post Falls in the state 5A semifinals for the second straight year.

But it was the offensive rebounds — some of which led to those 3s — that were just as much of a body blow as the Trojans lost 65-61 to Hillcrest of Idaho Falls on Friday night at the Ford Idaho Center.

“The difference in the game was the rebounding,” Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. “That’s the first thing we’ve written on the board all year long. Rebounding tells the story, and they out-rebounded us (27-22) tonight. And in a tight game like that, against a good team that can shoot it like Hillcrest did tonight, you can’t allow them to have extra possessions, and tonight we gave them way too many extra possessions.”

Hillcrest (21-5) advances to the state title game for the first time in any classification, and will face defending champion Rocky Mountain (23-3) of Meridian tonight.

Post Falls (19-6) will play Borah (21-4) of Boise in the third-place game today at 11 a.m. PST at Columbia High in Nampa.

Post Falls was trying to become only the second team in state history — and the first since Meridian in 1983 — to win state in girls basketball, wrestling and boys basketball in the same school year.

Hillcrest, which made 7 of 17 3s in beating Mountain View of Meridian on Thursday night, made 11 of 21 from distance against Post Falls. And Jaxon Weatherly, a 6-foot-4 senior forward, had four offensive rebounds, all seemingly coming at huge times for the Knights.

“Jaxon’s done that for us all year long,” Hillcrest coach Dave Austin said. “He’s just one of the kids that does all the little things, and doesn’t get a lot of credit for it. But boy, he stepped up big tonight, just like he has in a lot of games this year.”

Senior Jake Pfennigs had 23 points and 11 rebounds for Post Falls. He hit 5 of 7 3-pointers, but was held to one fourth-quarter basket as the Trojans were outscored 21-14 by Hillcrest.

“We were not as efficient in the half-court set as I would have liked,” McLean said of the game. “I thought there were too many possessions where we had too many … turnovers, I guess.”

Austin joked the turning point was when Pfennigs had to change jerseys before the fourth quarter because he had blood on his.

“We made a few adjustments at halftime, and they bought into those adjustments, and did a much better job on him,” Austin said of how he wanted his team to defend the pick-and-roll. “He’s such a great player, you’re not going to stop him, you just hope you can slow him down, and I think we did just enough there in the second half to get the win.”

Post Falls led by as much as seven points twice in a wild third quarter in which the teams combined to hit nine 3s, five by Hillcrest to pull within 47-44 at the quarter.

Kyle Austin’s continuation three-point play early in the fourth tied it at 47.

Parker Boyle, a left-handed junior reserve guard, hit a 3 with 4:51 remaining to give Hillcrest its first lead since midway through the first quarter at 52-50. The shot came in the middle of a 9-0 run, capped by Weatherly’s inside basket that increased the Knights’ lead to 56-50 with 2:49 left. Weatherly finished with 12 points and six boards.

Post Falls never regained the lead.

“Their shooters got loose from us,” said McLean, whose team gave up 40 second-half points. “Against a team like Hillcrest that can shoot it, and has lots of guys that can shoot it from all over, you can’t allow them any extra possessions. And with their offensive rebounding that they got on us, that’s kind of what happens.”

Post Falls came as close as 59-58 with roughly 1:20 left on a 3-pointer by sophomore Colby Gennett, who hit 8 of 9 from the field, including 4 of 4 on 3s.

Hillcrest hit 6 of 7 free throws in the final 1:12 to seal it.

Down 3, Post Falls missed an inside shot with 40 seconds left and had to foul. Gennett hit another 3 with 16.8 seconds left to make it 63-61.

Post Falls had to foul, and Derek Marlowe hit two free throws with 15.8 seconds left to pretty much wrap it up.

“They made shots, and we didn’t,” Pfennigs said of the fourth quarter. “We made some good shots, but they just made shots back at us.”

Senior Tanner McCliment-Call added eight points for Post Falls, all in the first half.

Marlowe, a 6-3 senior guard, hit 4 of 8 3s and led Hillcrest with 17 points. Boyle hit three 3s and added 11 points, and Trey Johnson and Parker Stevens each hit two 3s. The Knights made 7 of 10 3s in the second half.

“What happened was, a couple of times they got some open 3s after an offensive rebound,” McLean said. “For whatever reason a couple of their guys got loose on the rebound, they get the rebound, they kick it out, they make the extra pass and now we’re scrambling, and that’s how they got some open 3s. It goes back to giving up too many offensive rebounds; we can not allow that kind of stuff to happen. We gave up seven offensive rebounds to them; that is unacceptable. We only got four. That’s three extra possessions. In a game like this, that is huge.”

“That’s kind of been our game all year long,” Dave Austin said. “We can go inside, and we can go outside. We’ve got some great shooters, and when they start knocking down those 3s, they really feed off of it.”

Weatherly hit a couple of big inside baskets in the fourth quarter as Hillcrest took the lead.

“We have to go inside, then work our way outside,” Austin said. “And especially in this arena here, where we’ve never played before, we told our kids, ‘Attack, attack, attack first, and then everything else will open up for you.”

Earlier, a few of the players and coaches visited senior reserve Casey Walker, who was taken to an area hospital with internal bleeding after Thursday’s game vs. Centennial. Walker took a charge during the first half and felt pain throughout the second half. He was later diagnosed with injuries to his kidney and spleen. He and his father, Brian, watched Friday night’s game from Casey’s hospital room via the internet.

“It’s tough for Casey,” McLean said. “He wants to be here. The pain that hurts him right now is the pain for not being there with his teammates. The physical pain, that’s unfortunate, but Casey’s a tough kid, and he’s got a rock-solid family. He’s going to be fine long-term, which in the big picture, is way more important. He had a life-threatening injury last night, so it kinda puts things in perspective.”

For the second straight year, Post Falls faces the task of bouncing back from a tough semifinal loss. Last year, the Trojans lost to Centennial in the semis, then fell to Lewiston in the third-place game.

“It’s horribly sad for our seniors,” McLean said. “They were trying to do something really special, and what I told them in the locker room was, we can’t let Hillcrest beat us twice. Last year Centennial beat us twice. They beat us in the semifinals and we didn’t bounce back real well.”

“We have to come out with a good mindset and a good attitude tomorrow, and bring back some hardware at least,” Pfennigs said.

Hillcrest 13 12 19 21 — 65

Post Falls 16 13 18 14 — 61

HILLCREST — Marlowe 17, Stevens 6, Johnson 10, Boyle 11, Weatherly 12, Austin 9, Cook 0. Totals 22-46 10-12 65.

POST FALLS — Gennett 20, McCliment-Call 8, Bourgard 8, Fleming 0, Ballew 0, Pfennigs 23, Morris 2. Totals 21-42 9-11 61.