STATE 5A GIRLS BASKETBALL: Zoned out

NAMPA — The opportunity to bring home the first trophy from state since 2014 is still there for the Coeur d’Alene girls basketball team.

After getting caught in the Thunder Ridge zone, it just isn’t the one that the Vikings intended on vying for.

Thunder Ridge of Idaho Falls held Coeur d’Alene to 22 points through the first three quarters in a 53-39 win in the state 5A semifinals on Friday at the Ford Idaho Center.

Coeur d’Alene led 6-0 early, but Thunder Ridge countered with a 13-0 run to lead 34-22 after three quarters.

Coeur d’Alene shot 16 of 49 in the game, including 5 of 23 from 3-point range. Sierra John scored 12 points for Thunder Ridge, which was 18 of 42.

“Their zone made us just completely stagnant,” Coeur d’Alene coach Nicole Symons said. “No matter what we did, we wouldn’t get moving and got tight. We always struggle against a zone, but thought we’d fight through it in the second half. I thought we were in a good position despite how bad we played, but we just couldn’t get into our running game. That’s our go-to, and they shot the ball well and handled our pressure. And the tighter we got, the worse it got and we struggled to find the spaces in that zone."

Coeur d’Alene was seeking its first trip to the state title game since ’14, when the Vikings last won the state title.

"It’s a little disappointing, but the girls have done a lot to get this program back down here,” Symons said. “We still get to play for third place tomorrow, so that’s amazing.”

Coeur d’Alene (19-2) faces Rigby (20-4) in the third-place game today at 11 a.m. PST at Ridgevue High in Nampa. Thunder Ridge (21-4) faces defending champion Mountain View (19-2) in the championship game at the Idaho Center.

Coeur d’Alene’s only two losses have come at the hands of Thunder Ridge, making its first state tournament appearance since the school opened in 2018.

“You’ve got to remember that they’ve done a lot of good things in the last two years,” Symons said. “I told our girls they’ve got a few minutes to take this one hard and then they’ve got to change their mindset and they’ve got a great opportunity to bring a trophy home for the first time since 2014. Sometimes life kicks you, and knocks you down. But you’ve got to respond in the tough times, and I know the girls will.”

“We missed some in the first half to keep us in it,” Symons said. “And we were really hesitant to shoot from the outside. Madi (Symons) had 32 the last time we played them, so I knew they were going to take her away. We needed other people to step up and hit shots, but that’s sports. Sometimes the shots just don’t fall. Our effort was there, but we’ve got to respond tomorrow.”

Senior guard Jaelyn Brainard-Adams had 10 points and a steal for Coeur d’Alene. Skylar Burke had 14 points and 10 rebounds.

“They were really aggressive like us,” Brainard-Adams said. “But when our shots aren’t falling, it’s tough to compete with that.”

Brainard-Adams scored to cut the deficit to 24-17 in the third quarter, but Thunder Ridge pulled away at the start of the fourth.

“When they went on that spree, it was hard to come back from that,” Brainard-Adams said. “We know that tomorrow that it’s our last game and we need to leave it all out on the court because coming back with third is still better than nothing.”

“Our shots weren’t quite falling like they had been,” Burke said. “Thunder Ridge plays fast and plays hard, and we don’t get to see that often. It was kind of a gut check for us. They were hitting shots and we weren’t.”

Aspen Caldwell and Lauren Davenport scored 11 points each for Thunder Ridge.

“Our whole goal with Madison (Symons) was to eliminate as many touches as we could,” Thunder Ridge coach Jeremy Spencer said. “I was up until 2 a.m. going through either to play man vs. zone when we played them. With Skyline also playing them, I was jockeying through a few different things, and felt a zone protected us from her on the inside and we made our adjustments to make sure we didn’t allow that. Between 55 (Burke) and her, we wanted to take them out of what they were trying to do in the key and understand where 55 was. We just tried to work our rotations and see what happens from there. And we didn’t come out of it and the zone really contained what they wanted to do.”

Thunder Ridge 7 11 16 19 — 53

Coeur d’Alene 6 7 9 17 — 39

THUNDER RIDGE — Caldwell 11, K. Stenquist 4, John 12, Spencer 3, Hoffman 0, Furniss 0, Arfmann 0, Davenport 11, Clark 9, Smith 3. Totals 18-42 12-20 53.

COEUR d’ALENE — Brainard-Adams 10, Whiteman 0, Symons 7, Ja. Johnson 0, Younker 6, Chavez 2, Burke 14. Totals 16-49 2-4 39.