STATE 5A GIRLS BASKETBALL: Nichols, Sims put Trojans in position for trophy
JASON DUCHOW PHOTOGRAPHY Hanna Christensen (44) of Post Falls goes up for a shot as Anna Dabell (21) of Rocky Mountain defends Friday in a state 5A girls basketball consolation bracket game at Mountain View High in Meridian.
By JASON ELLIOTT
Sports writer
MERIDIAN — As the guards go, so does the Post Falls offense.
On Friday, they got it going in the second half.
Senior guard Trinidie Nichols scored 10 of her 12 points in the second half, eight coming in a four-minute stretch, to push the Trojans past the Rocky Mountain Grizzlies 66-36 in a state 5A girls basketball loser-out game at Mountain View High in Meridian.
Junior forward Capri Sims had 22 points and 11 rebounds for Post Falls, which beat Rocky Mountain 55-22 in a regular season game earlier this season at Post Falls High.
“Their first mistake was they were putting their smaller players on me,” Sims said. “Which is a bad matchup. I could hear my teammates and the players on the bench to go inside and that was a better matchup because they were giving that to me the entire day.”
Post Falls (19-8) faces third-seeded Thunder Ridge of Idaho Falls (21-5) in the consolation championship today at 9 a.m. at Ridgevue High in Nampa.
Sims and senior Hanna Christensen scored eight points each in the first half for Post Falls.
“Capri got us out to a good start and played well throughout,” Post Falls coach Marc Allert said. “I thought the key was Trinidie made that nice run by herself in the third quarter that really kind of changed the game for us.”
Post Falls closed out the game by shooting 18 of 28 from the field in the second half, finishing 26 of 48 for the game.
“Our transition game is really what gets us going,” Sims said. “I think we shot the ball well inside and our guards hit most of their shots.”
Post Falls fell 52-38 in the opening round to Boise on Thursday.
“We just had to get back to playing our game, at our speed and intensity,” Nichols said. “They say it starts with the point guard, so I knew I had to step up and get things done. We executed a lot better and played well in the second half.”
“We’re a lot better when we’re playing at our own pace,” Allert said. “We kind of played a little timid and didn’t play as aggressive as we needed to in the first half. We just got more aggressive and that led to playing faster.”
Marli Reed scored 13 points for Rocky Mountain (12-15), which lost by just five points to Lake City on Thursday.
Post Falls 12 11 20 23 — 66
Rocky Mountain 6 12 12 6 — 36
POST FALLS — McLean 0, Nichols 12, Heath 7, Grant 0, Brennan 6, Sims 22, Berg 3, Asper 5, Walton 3, Christensen 8. Totals 26-48 10-12 66.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN — Lee 2, Archiblad 3, Tannaci 2, Maguson 6, Osterhout 4, Christie 2, Mumford 0, Shellhous 0, Siwek 0, Dabell 4, Allen 0, Reed 13, Dyche 0. Totals 12-48 10-13 36.