Trojans fall in third-place game to Borah
JASON DUCHOW PHOTOGRAPHY Post Falls senior Tanner McCliment-Call drives to the basket during the state 5A third-place game against Borah High of Boise at Columbia High in Nampa.
NAMPA — The result wasn’t any different one year later, but the Post Falls Trojans weren’t going to let it detract from one heckuva run by this group of seniors the past two seasons.
Trying to bounce back from a disappointing semifinal loss the night before, Post Falls lost to Borah of Boise 62-56 in the third-place game of the state 5A boys basketball tournament Saturday at Columbia High.
“These seniors, they have 120-some (college) credits — these seniors’ GPA is 3.8 or 3.9,” Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. “They’ve gone two years undefeated in the (5A) IEL, they represent the school and the community. We travel all over the West, we go to Las Vegas, we come here, we go over to Seattle. We have zero issues everywhere we go. The kids are very respectful; they couldn’t represent our school and our community any better.”
Jake Pfennigs, one of seven seniors in the rotation, had 23 points and 13 rebounds for Post Falls (19-7). He hit 4 of 8 3-pointers. Senior Tanner McCliment-Call added 14 points for the Trojans, who shot 39.6 percent (21 of 53) from the field after being around 50 percent their first two games at state.
Last year, Post Falls was unable to bounce back from a loss to Centennial in the semifinals, and fell to Lewiston in the third-place game.
“What we talked about in (the locker room) was, the great thing about playing team sports at a high level, is you’ve reached the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, and sometimes those can come in a 24- or 36-hour span,” McLean said.
On Saturday, Post Falls had a 36-31 lead midway through the third quarter, but Borah (22-4) outscored the Trojans 18-6 over the next seven minutes to take control of the game.
Sophomore Austin Bolt had 28 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots for Borah, which was a rattled-out jumper in the semifinals against Rocky Mountain from advancing to the state title game. Junior point guard Ellis Magnuson added 12 points, five assists and four boards.
“I love the way he plays,” McLean said of Bolt, a 6-foot-4 forward. “He’s relentless and he gets after it. He’s the kind of player that every successful team has one of.
“When you have a point guard like Magnuson that doesn’t turn the ball over, gets them in their sets … and he’s very physical without fouling. You can’t get a team like that rattled, and every time they need a tough basket, he may not have a lot of points, but every time we were making a run, he’s the guy that got them that layup, or he did all the work to create an easy basket for somebody else.”
Post Falls sophomore Colby Gennett, the only underclassman in the rotation who missed just one shot (14 of 15) in his first two games at state, was 3 of 9 on Saturday and finished with eight points and four assists.
The Trojans had 15 turnovers.
“It’s tough,” said Post Falls senior David Bourgard, who finished with seven points. “ It helps knowing that we won league both years, and won regionals one year, and went down to Vegas and beat nationally ranked teams. So for all the stuff we’ve done, it’s hard to say we had a bad season just because of the ending.”
Post Falls 7 16 17 16 — 56
Borah 11 10 20 21 — 62
POST FALLS — Gennett 8, McCliment-Call 14, Bourgard 7, Fleming 4, Ballew 0, Pfennigs 23, Morris 0. Totals 21-53 7-8 56.
BORAH — Bergersen 1, Ndabanyenzuye 0, Castro 4, Young 7, Ahlstrom 0, Jimenez 4, Bolt 28, Williams 6, Magnuson 12. Totals 22-46 16-21 62.