STATE 5A GIRLS SEMIFINALS: Lake City held to seven field goals in semifinal loss to Boise

By JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writer

NAMPA — “They played really good defense and knew how to shut us down,” Lake City sophomore Avery Waddington said.

And with that, so went the state 5A title hopes of the Lake City Timberwolves.

Boise, the fifth seed in this year’s tournament, held the top-seeded Timberwolves to seven field goals on 45 shots in a 45-25 semifinal win at the Ford Idaho Center on Friday night.

“Anytime you play the way we play, there’s a risk of a bad shooting night,” said Lake City coach James Anderson, whose team scored 63 points in the Region 1 title game to advance. “We’d thought we’d turned a corner and had been shooting the ball really well the last couple of weeks, but we struggled down here.”

Boise limited Lake City to three field goals in the final three quarters.

Sophomore guard Kamryn Pickford had 10 points off the bench for Lake City (21-4), which faces Rigby today in the third-place game at Ridgevue High in Nampa at 11 a.m. PST. Rigby (19-6) lost to Timberline of Boise 56-49 in the other semifinal.

Kendall Pickford, Lake City’s only senior, had seven points.

“They were shots we could have made,” Anderson said. “But they also played great defense and took us away from some other ones.”

Boise held Lake City without a field goal in the second quarter, stretching a 14-11 lead after the first into a 24-12 halftime lead.

“I just think that they were able get out on our shooters and found a way to shut us down,” Kamryn Pickford said. “I’m sorry that Kendall (Kamryn's sister) can’t get to the title game.”

Lake City started one senior (Kendall Pickford), three sophomores (Avery Waddington, Sophia Zufelt) and two juniors (Emberlyn Reynolds and Allie Bowman).

“It’s too late for K.P., and I feel terrible for her,” Anderson said. “Because this is what she plays for. But to the young ones, they learned from Boise, who’s a seasoned team, just how to get it done. We were hoping to skip steps and come down here with a good, young team. But it’s hard. Experience is the separator a lot of times in basketball, so that certainly helped them.”

Boise, at state for the fifth straight year, advanced to its first state title game since 2015. Ava Oakland, a senior who has signed with NAIA Carroll College, scored 16 points for Boise (21-3).

“Defense has been a real focus for us all year, because it’s something you can control,” Boise coach Kim Brydges said. “Even if you’re not doing well offensively, you can do some things defensively. I thought Ava did a really good job shutting down Kendall Pickford. We knew she was going to be one of their big threats, and she’s really the motor that drives them.”

Senior Ashley Banks, who has signed with Southern Utah, had eight points and six rebounds for Boise. Banks was 7 for 7 from the field and 4 for 4 from the free throw line against Post Falls in the opener.

“Obviously, this was a big stage to play on and we’re a young team,” Anderson said. “Boise has been through this the last few years and have a lot of seniors. They’ve matured and understand how to play through that stuff. Credit to them, they took us out of a lot of stuff that we wanted to do.”

Boise 14 10 10 11 — 45

Lake City 11 1 6 7 — 25

BOISE — Clark 0, Nelson 16, Oakland 9, Turcke 2, Patricco 0, Munich 0, Powell 4, Howell 8, Montgomery 0. Totals 18-35 6-13 45.

LAKE CITY — Ke. Pickord 7, Ka. Pickford 10, Bowman 0, Zufelt 3, Waddington 0, McKellips 1, Holzer 0, Reynolds 2, Zimmerman 2. Totals 7-45 9-14 25.