STATE 5A BOYS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: So much for that ... Top-seeded Lake City stunned by No. 8 Centennial in first round

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

NAMPA — The Lake City Timberwolves brought the No. 1 ranking, the high expectations and the near-perfect season into the state 5A boys basketball tournament.

None of that seemed to mean anything to the Centennial Patriots.

Eighth-seeded Centennial burned top-seeded Lake City from 3-point range early, then outworked the Timberwolves in a 15-2 run late and stunned Lake City, 72-67, in a first-round game Thursday afternoon at the Ford Idaho Center.

“It hurts,” Lake City junior center Blake Buchanan said. “Not much you can say about it. They shot well, and outplayed us. At the end of the day, we didn’t take care of what we needed to take care of.”

Lake City (22-2), last year’s state runners-up will play No. 4 Eagle (20-5) in a consolation-round game today at 11 a.m. PST at Rocky Mountain High in Meridian. Eagle lost to No. 5 Rigby (17-8) 54-52.

Centennial (15-10), the top-shooting team from 3 in the Southern Idaho Conference, hit 6 of its first 7 3s against Lake City, and had the T-Wolves playing from behind until early in the third quarter. The Patriots finished 8 of 19 from deep, and hit 22 of 27 from the free-throw line, including 18 of 22 in the fourth quarter.

“I’m not going to give anything but credit to Centennial,” Lake City coach Jim Winger said. “First day of the state tournament, to shoot the ball like that, they played their butts off. I know for a fact we didn’t look by them, I knew what they were capable of. We got beat, and we didn’t shoot the ball very well at all, and missed some little ones, but I just have a lot of praise. I’ve always had a lot of respect for coach (Josh) Aipperspach and his dad. We just picked a poor time to shoot like that. I don’t think we gave up 70 points the entire year to anybody.”

Kolton Mitchell scored 20 points on 6-of-19 shooting for Lake City, including 1 of 11 from 3. Buchanan added 14 points (10 in the first half), eight boards and two blocked shots, and Nathan Hocking had 13 points.

Lake City was 26 of 58 from the field, including 2 of 19 from deep.

“It always hurts; no one likes losing, especially like this,” said Mitchell, a junior. “We got beat; I didn’t shoot very well at all; that loss was on me. I didn’t shoot well from the 3-point line, and when that happens we can’t score as much. That’s on me.”

Lake City was up 54-48 with 5:42 left, but then didn’t score for nearly three minutes as Centennial took the lead with a 9-0 run. The Patriots did not hit a 3 over the last seven minutes, but overtook the T-Wolves by getting to the basket, drawing fouls and making free throws, and forcing turnovers.

“We never did really flow,” Winger said. “We were up six, and we got beat on a couple slips, and it kinda turned … they (the Patriots) were on their toes, and were pretty energetic. I never really felt that we were ourselves for most of the game.”

Weston Johnson, a lefty shooting 6-foot-4 senior, hit 3 of 3 3-pointers in the first quarter as Centennial jumped out to an 11-4 lead and led 21-13 at the quarter. Johnson finished with 19 points, 13 in the first half.

Kaden Christensen, a senior guard, led all scorers with 27 points for Centennial, 15 in the second half. He was 11 of 12 from the line, 8 of 8 in the fourth quarter.

“Kolton’s a great player, Aipperspach said. “We were trying to stop him, and we kept him 1 for 11 from 3. But we knew that their X-factor was (Zach) Johnson. When Johnson scores, they’re very good. Buchanan, he’s a tough guard. We knew he was going to get his. He’s 6-11; we don’t have that. We had to limit everybody else. “

Johnson finished with 10 points and seven rebounds, and fouled out with 1:52 left.

Lake City came into state allowing 47.6 points per game. The 72 points allowed Thursday were a season high; the T-Wolves allowed 71 to Meridian in an overtime win in December.

“They were definitely more physical inside,” Buchanan said. “There’s really no excuses. We lost, they outplayed us and that’s it.”

After Centennial’s initial flurry, Lake City defensed the 3 better. In the third quarter, the T-Wolves worked to get the ball inside to Buchanan and the 6-6 Hocking, and Hocking’s three-point play gave Lake City its first lead of the game, 40-37 with 5:32 left in the third quarter.

Lake City led by six three times in the second half, but couldn’t put Centennial away. Weston Johnson’s short jumper put the Patriots up 55-54 with 4 minutes left. Lake City then kept missing shots and turning the ball over, and had to play the foul game.

The T-Wolves got it to within 66-64 on Mitchell’s lone 3 of the game with 42 seconds left. But Centennial hit 4 of 6 free throws, Lake City missed twice, and that was that.

“That’s a talented group,” Aipperspach said of Lake City. “When we found out we were playing them, I can’t tell you how many hours of film we watched. In the end, we knew. We’ve got the guys. We’ve got a bunch of fighters in there (locker room).”

“We’ve had a lot of good things said about us, and when you get beat, you’ve got to take the good with the bad,” Winger said. “We’ve just got to keep our head up, and show people what we’ve got tomorrow. They play the games for a reason, and they flat, all the way around, beat us. In all aspects — coaching, playing, I just give them nothing but credit.”

“We’ve got to put it past us; nothing we can do about it now,” Mitchell said. “We’ve got to go win these next two games.”

Centennial 21 14 10 27 — 72

Lake City 13 18 19 17 — 67

CENTENNIAL — Wi. Johnson 3, Schabot 8, Shipp 12, We. Johnson 19, Christensen 27, Fletcher 1, Deedon 2, Knudson 0. Totals 21-44 22-27 72.

LAKE CITY — Buchanan 14, Strawn 3, Jones 4, Miller 0, Kiesbuy 3, Hocking 13, Z. Johnson 10, Mitchell 20. Totals 26-58 13-19 67.