A great season, with or without the limelight
Expectations.
Some are more public than others.
Central Valley High’s girls basketball team expected to repeat as state champions last year, but was upset in the state quarterfinals.
With a star-studded cast returning, the Bears dubbed this season “The Redemption Tour,” and they didn’t disappoint. CV went undefeated, romping through the state 4A tournament with victories of 45, 18 and 31 points, and finished 27-0.
CV was recently ranked ninth in the nation by USA Today, and was invited to play in the four-team GEICO High School Basketball Nationals this Friday and Saturday in New York.
Good for the Bears. It will be cool to see how they play on that stage.
Eagle’s girls, state 5A runners-up in Idaho last season, returned most of their players and entered this season with high hopes. The Mustangs were ranked as high as eighth by USA Today, and had to carry that thing around like an anvil all season.
MEANWHILE ...
Post Falls’ girls quietly returned everyone from last year’s team that lost a close one to Eagle in the state semifinals, then came back the next day to finish third.
In a much-anticipated early season matchup, Post Falls gave CV a good game before falling in the Trojans’ eighth game of the season (it was CV’s fourth). Post Falls took another loss (and won three other games) at a high-profile tournament in Vegas. With a couple of early blemishes, the Trojans didn’t have to lug around the burden of an undefeated record.
But quietly, they knew they were good. And they might not have minded that others were garnering more attention.
Post Falls domininated the rest of North Idaho, and finished the job down at state, handling a previously undefeated Eagle team in the title game.
The fact the Trojans were not ranked in the top 25 by USA Today might tell you all you need to know about national rankings at the high school level. They were obviously better than Eagle, and competitive with CV.
I KEEP thinking back to that Post Falls-CV game, in Spokane Valley in mid-December. Post Falls led for much of the first half, by as much as five in the second quarter, before the Bears closed strong for a 22-20 lead at intermission.
Post Falls was still within four points with just over 3 minutes left before CV pulled away for a 59-48 win.
What if Post Falls star Melody Kempton hadn’t gotten into foul trouble, and had to sit for key stretches? What if Post Falls had hit a few more shots in the second half?
The eye test said both teams looked pretty even. CV obviously has a pair of great players, but Post Falls’ standouts held their own against the Bears. Maybe if CV shoots better than 22 of 70 from the field, the Bears win going away and the questions are moot.
Anyway ...
Not to take anything away from CV and Eagle; they certainly deserved the attention they received. But Post Falls also deserved many of the accolades bestowed on the other two teams.
Maybe the Trojans’ state title, their domination of most teams during the season, and their stellar showing at that Vegas tourney, are just fine with them.
- You may have noticed Kempton was featured in this “Faces in the Crowd” section in this week’s Sports Illustrated. In addition to leading the Trojans to a state title, the Gonzaga signee was named Gatorade Idaho high school girls basketball player of the year, and was also named 5A girls Player of the Year on the All-Idaho team, as voted on by coaches statewide and compiled by The Idaho Statesman newspaper of Boise.
Others in the area have been honored as “Faces in the Crowd” by SI in recent months.
Tyson McGuffin of Hayden, a pickleball instructor at Peak Health and Wellness, made it into “Faces in the Crowd” in December after winning a USA Pickleball Association national championship last fall.
And Layton Gallagher, a senior on the football team at Wallace High, was honored in by the magazine in December. Gallagher was born without a left hand.
McGuffin, by the way, won the men’s singles 5.0 division last weekend at the Lakes Spring Fling pickleball tournament at the Lakes Country Club in Palm Desert, Calif.
McGuffin, the top-ranked player in the world, plays for Selkirk Sport, a Hayden-based manufacturer of pickleball paddles and accessories.
Another member of Team Selkirk, professional tennis player Kaitlyn Christian — who acted as Emma Stone’s tennis double in the film “Battle of the Sexes” — won the women’s singles title in the 5.0 division.
Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.