STATE 6A BOYS SEMIFINALS: T-Wolves to play for title — Strawn shines early, Lake City holds off Boise late, will play Owyhee in championship game

By JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writer

NAMPA – In the first half, Lake City senior guard Reese Strawn got everything he took.

By the second half, his team moved one step closer to getting what they made the long bus trip for.

Strawn, who finished 8 of 9 from the field with 25 points in the first half, scored a game-high 27 points for the second-seeded Timberwolves in a 63-60 win over the sixth-seeded Boise Brave on Friday in a state 6A semifinal at the Ford Idaho Center.

“You can always kind of feel it,” Strawn said. “It doesn’t matter a whole lot unless your teammates are going to get you open and look for you. It takes the entire team for someone to get six 3s off in a game. None of it is possible without the five guys on the court.”

“Reese is an unbelievable basketball player,” said Lake City coach James Anderson, in his second season as boys coach after six seasons as girls coach. “Every day in practice I’ve seen things that nobody else sees. I’m just grateful to get one more day with him. Boise is such a fast, physical team. But when you consider the stage and the final four, this gym, and they’re probably the best defensive guards in the state.”

“We’ve put countless reps in both in and out of practice,” Lake City sophomore Jordan Carlson said of Strawn. “We know how great of a shooter he is and we’re going to do our best to get him open and get those shots.”

Lake City (21-4) returns to the title game after winning the program’s first title in 2023 and winning the consolation title last year. The Timberwolves will face top-seeded and defending champion Owyhee (22-4) of Meridian, which beat fourth-seeded Timberline of Boise 50-42 in the other semifinal.

Timberline (17-11), which beat Post Falls in a state play-in game last Saturday in Cottonwood, faces Boise (12-15) for third today at Centennial High in Boise.

Lake City lost 76-56 to Owyhee on Dec. 13 in Meridian.

“That was December, and this is March now,” Strawn said. “A lot of things can happen. This building has some weird air in it, and I’ve fallen victim to that. We’ve been working at this since last season. Nobody thought we’d be here, and right now, who cares what anyone else thinks. We’re just coming in focusing on us, and that’s what got us that far.”

Strawn was limited to two points, both on free throws, in the second half.

“At the half, the reason he was hitting those shots was because he was shooting over the defense,” Boise coach Manny Varela said. “So we put 6-foot-7 Michael (Nance) on him to see if he could shoot over that, and it was enough to throw off their offense.”

After junior Josh Watson gave Lake City a 58-42 lead, Boise countered with a 6-0 run to cut the deficit. Then again, Boise trimmed the lead to 61-55 on a 3-pointer by Eli Rich with 2:12 remaining. Rich struck again and was fouled to cut the deficit to 61-60, but missed a tying free throw with 1:52 remaining. 

Lake City senior guard Cason Miller hit a jumper with 1:07 remaining. Boise missed a layup on its ensuing possession, then was unable to hit a tying 3-pointer with 2 seconds left.

“All year, they’ve gotten out to bad starts, but always find their way back into the game,” Strawn said of Boise. “No matter what happens, it’s 32 minutes for a reason and Boise’s a team that’s always going to make a run. I got nervous for sure, but we pulled it out, and that’s all that matters.”

Boise outscored Lake City 18-7 in the fourth quarter.

“It was so physical, and we were trying to be physical with the ball,” Anderson said. “Every time we come down here, each game is more and more physical, there’s no question. The one thing I can give credit to our team is that I might have missed a couple of timeouts when I thought they had space and didn’t end up working out. To respond with 90 seconds left, and it was an incredible shot by Cason.”

Carlson finished with 10 points and six rebounds, Watson 15 points and 14 rebounds for Lake City.

“It was a battle,” Carlson said. “They’re physical for sure, and playing in those scenarios, it’s great to get that experience for sure.”

“They’re really athletic,” Varela said. “They were different than Madison, but we weren’t afraid of them. We hadn’t played a team like that in the valley with that kind of length, so it took a bit to adjust and figure out how we were going to score. And you could see that in the first half a little bit.”

Boise was scoreless in the first four minutes of the game, falling behind 13-0.

“We’ve been in this situation before and we’ve closed the gap,” Varela said. “We’ve done this before and our guys looked at each other and we wondered if we could close it fast enough. We had a free throw to tie it and a 3-pointer to send it to overtime with our hottest shooter taking the shot. They’re just resilient and they’re not going to back down. Lake City was longer, stronger and more athletic, but our guys were going to fight.”

Boise        11    12    19    18    –    60

Lake City    18    20    18    7    –    63

BOISE – Rich 7, Gebert 11, Soltau 23, Thacker 12, Hale 0, Nance 7, Bell 0, Berliner 0. Totals 22-58 8-10 60.

LAKE CITY – Winey 0, Strawn 27, Miller 9, Watson 15, Kloos 2, Bowman 0, Pearson 0, Carlson 10. Totals 24-43 7-9 63.

    JASON DUCHOW PHOTOGRAPHY Lake City senior guard Reese Strawn shoots over Boise defender Eli Rich during the first half of Friday's state 6A boys basketball semifinal game at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.
  

    JASON DUCHOW PHOTOGRAPHY Lake City junior Joshua Watson shoots over Boise's Will Gebert during the second half of Friday's game at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.