By Jordan Rodriguez, Special to NWPrepsNow.com
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NAMPA, Idaho – The Filer Wildcats celebrated the first girls basketball state title in school history Saturday.
The Timberlake Tigers will have to wait at least one more year to capture theirs. Timberlake freshman Keelie Lawler scored a game-high 21 points, but it wasn’t enough as the Tigers dropped a 44-36 decision to Filer in the State 3A championship game at the Ford Idaho Center.
“We had a great year,” Lawler said. “This feeling I have in my stomach sucks right now, but we’re going to continue to work hard to be even better next year, and we’re going to continue to strive.”
After a back-and-forth first quarter, Timberlake (18-9) went cold and didn’t make a second-quarter basket until Lawler’s 3-pointer with 1:48 remaining.
Timberlake came alive after that, closing the half on a 10-5 run to trim the halftime deficit to 21-20.
But the Tigers’ shooting woes returned in the second half. Filer’s long-armed defenders contested nearly every jump shot and closed down driving lanes as the Wildcats were able to build and maintain a comfortable lead down the stretch.
Senior post Jessica Norlander chipped in seven points and eight rebounds for Timberlake, but the Tigers shot just 19 percent (10 for 52) from the field and 50 percent (12 for 24) from the free-throw line.
“I thought we did a lot of good things, we just didn’t shoot the ball well enough to beat a team like Filer,” Timberlake coach Matt Miller said. “We got the looks we wanted for the people we wanted, but we didn’t make enough of them.”
Junior guard Sydney Koyle came off the bench to score a team-high 13 points for Filer (23-3).
Senior post Jenna Jarolimek had 10 points and eight rebounds and senior wing Katie Hughes added nine points for the senior-heavy Wildcats, who were state runners-up last season.
