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The tournament’s two pre-tourney favorites, Lapwai and Ambrose, both got stern, opening-round tests before pulling away to reach Friday’s semifinals.
Lapwai used a strong third quarter to finally shake Raft River, 81-61. But the upstart Trojans gave the powerful Wildcats everything they could handle well into the third quarter before Lapwai wore Raft River down.
Lapwai had four players reach double figures, led by the 19 of Cameron Shawl, and shot 48 percent as a team. Raft River didn’t back down from the challenge, getting 21 points from Wacey Holtman and only trailed by one at halftime.
The Wildcats will face Grace in one semifinal. The Grizzlies shot 57 percent from the field in the second half en route to a tight, 48-46, win over Liberty Charter. Talon Nance had a big game for Grace, scoring a game-high 16 points and gathering eight rebounds in the win. The Patriots were led by the 15 points each of Michael Wachsmuth and Trevor Fowler. Wachsmuth also had seven assists for Liberty Charter.
Ambrose got 32 points and eight rebounds from its All-State forward, Travis Yenor, but got a good fight out of Genesee before pulling away in the fourth quarter for a 67-47 win. The Archers’ only losses this season have come against 5A Centennial and 5A Vallivue but things didn’t come easy for much of Thursday’s quarterfinal against a Genesee team that got 17 points from Trevor Stout and 14 from Connor Phillips.
The Archers will face Oakley, who used a big second quarter to get up on defending champion Prairie before holding on down the stretch for a 38-32 victory. Neither team shot the ball particularly well, but the Hornets did enough in the second quarter, out-scoring the Pirates 15-7 to seize control. Oakley’s lead eventually grew to 15 before holding off a desperate Prairie rally in the fourth quarter.
Gannon Critchfield had ten points and five rebounds off the bench for Oakley while reigning 1AD1 State Player of the Year Jake Bruner had 15 points and nine rebounds before fouling out for Prairie.
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