By Jordan Rodriguez, Special to The Spokesman-Review
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NAMPA, IDAHO—The Post Falls boys basketball team took upset-minded Nampa’s best punch and lived to fight another day at the 5A state tournament.
With a fired up crowd cheering on the hometown Bulldogs, junior guard Max McCullough and the top-ranked Trojans rallied to overcome a seven-point halftime deficit and escape with a 52-51 victory Thursday at the Idaho Center.
Post Falls (23-1) advances to play Capital (18-6) in an 8 p.m. semifinal Friday.
“That’s as poorly as we’ve played in 24 games this year,” Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. “We had 15 turnovers in the first half, which is just unacceptable. But in the end, we’re happy to get the win. This time of year, it’s not about being pretty. It’s survive and advance.”
Turnovers, cold shooting and a general sluggishness contributed to the Trojans’ poor start as Nampa seized an early lead. The Bulldogs trapped on defense and attacked in transition, building an improbable 30-23 halftime lead.
Nampa (13-13) was a surprise just to qualify for the tournament in their first year competing at the 5A level. But with a partisan crowd pulling for the upset, the Bulldogs had the Trojans on the ropes.
“I thought we came out flat,” McCullough said. “The first game at state is the toughest one, and we just didn’t play very well in the first half.”
Post Falls came out of halftime with a sense of urgency, scoring the first seven points to tie the score. But Nampa, led by point guard Kooper Wilcox (17 points, six rebounds), continued to battle, taking a four-point lead into the final period.
That’s when McCullough took over. The lightning-quick junior converted back-to-back three-point plays to re-tie the score early in the fourth quarter, then hit a 3-pointer to give Post Falls a 47-44 lead with 3:07 remaining.
The Trojans would never trail again. McCullough hit a transition layup and two free throws to extend the lead to 51-44, giving him 13 points in the quarter. Nampa climbed back into it in the final seconds, with JD Schutt (12 points) nailing a 3 with 4 seconds left to make it a one-point game. But Nampa was out of timeouts, and Post Falls allowed the clock to expire without inbounding the ball.
McCullough finished with 19 points, four rebounds and four assists for Post Falls. Senior post Jake Blakney added 10 points and eight rebounds, while freshman wing Jacob Pfennigs chipped in eight points and eight boards off the bench.
“I wanted to be aggressive,” McCullough said. “I came out flat early, but we got some turnovers in the second half, and I was able to get some better looks off of those.”
McLean pointed out an unsung hero for the Trojans—sophomore Wyatt Millsap. The speedy reserve hounded Wilcox throughout the second half, wearing him down as the game reached crunch time.
“I thought Wyatt was the player of the game,” McLean said. “By the end of the game, [Wilcox] was so tired, he couldn’t get them into their sets. I thought that made a huge difference for us.”