STATE 5A GIRLS: Coeur d'Alene drops third-place game in 5A, lauds seniors

NAMPA — The effort was there all season for the Coeur d’Alene High girls basketball team.

With Thursday’s 56-50 win over Boise High, the Vikings had their most wins in a season — 19 — since winning the 5A title in 2014.

Now, the work needs to begin again to bring another back.

Sophomore Madi Symons had 16 points and 11 rebounds, and junior guard Skylar Burke added 16 points for the Vikings, who fell to the Rigby Trojans 47-41 in the third-place game at Ridgevue High on Saturday.

The only other losses for Coeur d’Alene, which finished 19-3, came to Thunder Ridge of Idaho Falls, once on Dec. 29 and again Friday in the semifinals.

“We’ve got to play tougher competition throughout the season,” Symons said. “We’ve got to get more prepared I think. I just don’t think we were as prepared for it. I told our younger kids that we’ve got a week off, and then we’re getting back in the gym and getting to go because we’ve got big shoes to fill.”

Coeur d’Alene limited Rigby to 13-of-43 shooting, but went 14 of 46 in the game.

“I thought we played great defense,” Coeur d’Alene coach Nicole Symons said. “Offensively, I thought we played well too, but we just didn’t hit shots that we’d normally hit in the past. We got the ball to people on the outside with their feet set and shots didn’t fall. Unfortunately when you get down to a tough team, and Rigby’s tough, I told the girls that’s our game to win if those shots fall, and it changes the course of the game.”

Last year, in its first appearance at state since 2014, Coeur d’Alene went 0-2. Coeur d’Alene has since gone 37-9 since Nicole Symons took over as coach.

“You really have to remember where you came from to where you’re at,” Symons said. “Our seniors really changed the course of Viking basketball to get back to the state tournament. Unfortunately for us, we didn’t have that tough competition that others had to prepare us for the state tournament. Unfortunately, with the way the season was this year, we weren’t able to play that really tough competition to prepare us. If we would have been able to play Boise, Rigby, and some of those other teams, we would have had a better idea of what we needed to bring for 32 minutes down here.”

Burke pulled Coeur d’Alene within 34-32 with 5:36 remaining, but Rigby was able to put the game away at the foul line, finishing 19 of 25 from the free-throw line.

Senior Jaelyn Brainard-Adams scored five points for Coeur d’Alene, which also graduates seniors Tori Younker, Jaden Chavez, Jayda Johnson and Emma Whiteman off back-to-back regional championship teams.

“Our seniors stuck through two losing seasons to get us here,” Nicole Symons said. “When you’ve got five seniors, you’ve got to fill spots for them and find minutes.”

Tylie Jones had 16 points and seven rebounds for Rigby (21-4).

Rigby 11 9 9 18 — 47

Coeur d’Alene 12 3 11 15 — 41

RIGBY — T. Jones 16, Williams 3, Briggs 0, Barber 4, Good 2, Donnelly 8, Kennedy 0, Youngstrom 14. Totals 13-43 16-28 47.

COEUR d’ALENE — Brainard-Adams 5, Whiteman 0, Symons 16, Ja. Johnson 0, Younker 0, Chavez 2, Phenicie 2, Burke 16. Totals 14-46 11-16 41.