STATE GIRLS BASKETBALL: Fresh(man) approach nothing new for Timberlake girls

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

Freshmen playing key roles at Timberlake?

Two of them?

Matt Miller has been there, done that.

Allison Kirby and Keelie Lawler, several years ago.

More recently, Brooke Jessen and Taryn Soumas.

So this year, when three freshmen entered the Tigers program, Miller had no problem plugging two of them — Malia Miller, his daughter, and Payton Young — into the starting lineup.

And Miller and Young are the top two scorers for Timberlake (20-2), which is back at state for the eighth time in nine years — but the first time since 2021, after missing out last year.

“It’s hard to compare, because the way we play changes so much year to year,” said Matt Miller, in his 18th year as Timberlake coach. “But yeah, I’ve had some really good ones play four years for me, and these two would be in that conversation as well.”

Malia Miller, a left-hander, averages 15.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 4.2 steals for Timberlake. Young averages 7.8 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 2.2 steals.

But others have stepped up as well for the Tigers.

Some games, it’s been Ciara Soumas, Taryn’s sister and the team’s lone senior, who averages 6.5 points, 2.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.0 steals.

Others, it’s been sophomore Jozee MacArthur, who averages 7.3 points, 5.0 rebound, 1.5 assists and 1.7 steals.

“Morgan Dickinson, in the last four or five games, has really stepped up,” Miller said of the junior, who averages a team-high 5.5 rebounds per game. “We’re so small, and she’s our tallest player that’s playing heavy minutes at 5-6. So for her to have to battle and be undersized and have to battle in every matchup she has, she’s been really doing a great job. I’ve been really impressed with her the last few games.”

Of the 11 players on the roster, four are sophomores along with the three freshmen.

“The freshmen and sophomores have played together since they were little,” Miller said. “We started a little team with them when they were in third and fourth grade, so they’ve played together all through elementary and junior high. So they’re used to each other. Marissa (Needs, a sophomore) even said, once this year started, ‘It feels like our team is here now.’ Because last year, when she was a freshman, they were missing the eighth graders that they normally got to play with.

“But yeah, they (the freshmen) have played a lot of basketball and they’re really good players, and I have a lot of trust in them.”

“Throughout the whole year, from the start, they’ve been doing great,” Soumas said. “They were very determined to win, as well as everyone else. And they could handle the ball, and they could handle the pressure, so I was very OK with it. I put my trust in them.”

Matt Miller said his daughter has had a great season.

But …

“Coaching her’s been hard; this has definitely been a season where I’ve had to choose what I say more carefully than I’ve ever done,” Matt Miller said. “because my default is to be really, really hard on her, and I’ve been working really hard on trying to be less of that. I don’t know how I’d grade myself on that; probably not very high.”

Does it help having his wife, Molly, also on the bench, as an assistant coach?

“I don’t know if it does; sometimes we feed off each other,” Matt said with a laugh. “You might want to ask Malia, ‘Hey, would it be better if you just had one parent as a coach?’ Because then you don’t have two people glaring at you and yelling at you.

“We both struggle with that. I try really hard to treat her like another player, and I know I don’t do a great job of it.”

What he does do a great job of is putting Timberlake in the hunt for a state title on a nearly annual basis.

This year, Timberlake’s two losses were by four points to Coeur d’Alene, the top seed to state in 5A, and Sandpoint, a state qualifier in 4A.

Timberlake is the second seed to state, and plays seventh seed Filer (15-9) in the opening game Thursday at 11 a.m. PST at Skyview High in Nampa.

3A coaches complained for years about the previous system for bracketing the state tournament, which had at least one matchup each pitting district champions against each other — and sometimes, those were the two best teams in the state that year.

So they were glad to see something different, starting last year, with MaxPreps rankings used to seed the tournaments.

Still …

“I don’t know,” Miller said. “We played Coeur d’Alene, and Coeur d’Alene was ranked No. 1 in the entire state (by MaxPreps). We lost to them by four and our ranking dropped A TON when that happened. And I couldn’t believe it.

“Clark Fork (a 1A Division II team) played us in a makeup game, and we beat them by 50, and we lost over a half a point — we lost 0.6 points winning by 50.

“So I don’t know how that formula works. Kimberly was seeded two spots higher than Filer, and Filer beat them three times (including districts). I don’t know how you can go head-to-head against somebody and beat them twice and be ranked below them.”

Filer ended up the seventh seed to state. Kimberly didn’t qualify.

“So if it’s better, it’s very marginal. I have very mixed feelings on it,” Miller said. “The old way was not good, but the new way is, in my opinion, still not good. The Kimberly-Filer thing was crazy. I can’t imagine playing the No. 1 team in the state to two possessions and having your ranking just drop.”

In any event, the bar is set high with Timberlake girls basketball.

Four state championships in six seasons (2016, ’17, ’20 and ’21).

Four runner-up finishes in five years (2011, ’13, ’14 and ’15.

Twice, the Tigers brought home third-place trophies (in 2018 and ’19), and Miller joked that he felt like he almost had to apologize.

That's 10 top-three trophies in 11 seasons, folks.

Last Wednesday, when Timberlake punched another ticket to state by beating Bonners Ferry, the players walked off the floor — just like they would after, say, a win in December. The coaches helped put away the chairs that the teams sat on.

“For them not to celebrate, that’s just their personality — they’re just a bunch of nice, quiet girls,” Miller said. “And I’m hoping that their sights are not just on making it to state. So I kinda like the non-celebration, just out of the mindset of, our goal wasn’t to make it TO state … “

So is this a potential state title team in Spirit Lake? Soumas is the only one on this year’s team to play at state two years ago, when the Tigers won the state title.

“I think they have the potential to be … we’ll see how our youth handles that stage,” Miller said. “I’ve had teams go down there that were young and did great. I’ve had teams that were experienced go down there and look like they hadn’t been there before. So, it just depends on how this group handles that. I think they have the tools and the skills to compete for a state championship, it’ll just be whether we have that mental toughness and focus to handle that stage.”