Five Takeways From A Big Tuesday In District Tourney Action
It was an action packed Tuesday across the Gem state in terms of district tournament action as a number of teams punched their tickets to the state tournament while others hung on to fight another day.
With so much drama taking place in a number of gyms, PHID felt compelled to pin down five takeways to help frame the chaos. A truly special time of year for prospects as they are getting every chance to showcase their abilities and leadership, for onlookers there is plenty to learn from and discover in terms of tracking talent. For those who have had their season end, there is no reason to hang your head, congratulations on an excellent prep season and it has been a pleasure at PHID following your 2017-18 campaign.
Now, without further ado, here are our five takeaways from a wild Tuesday…
Preston gets revenge
The top team in 4A further cemented itself in the pole position as they checked off one of their early season goals in seeking revenge against Idaho Falls in the 4A 5-6 district title game. In typical Preston fashion, it was a well-rounded team performance as their experienced laden squad all showed up. The Indians duo of Brayden Parker and Derek Wadsworth, two top 15 2018 players according to our rankings, spearheaded the charge as both finished with 18 points. Parker, our top 2018 prospect also finished with 12 rebounds.
However, there was production to be found from other members of this 4A favorite as Chance Hart ended with 13 points and 11 rebounds, another prospect in the 2018 class. In fact, all six seniors scored in the first quarter of action.
This group will start it’s three peat campaign shortly and these names will likely pop up once again in the headlines.
Bishop Kelly’s run
Make that 11 games in a row now for Bishop Kelly as the Max Rice led team has put together a thrilling stretch that has them playing some of their best basketball at exactly the right time. Rice once again went over the 20 point plateau against Vallivue as they notched their second win against the Falcons in as many games on their home court. The season series went 2-1 in their favor.
Rice has been playing excellent basketball, often finding his teammates for open looks when the defense has been focused on him while also finding his own driving it to the hoop with relative ease. A player who has caught our eye on this squad has been Troy Colleran, who is not afraid to take or hit the big shot. Senior Danny Oliver-Connelly is another player who seems to get it done for this group as well.
The Knights are rolling and have plenty of momentum going into their 4A SIC district title game against Skyview this Saturday.
Carr keeps Highland alive
It took a nine point fourth quarter comeback for the Highland Rams to keep their state tournament hopes alive, and also a heavy contribution from their star player Daxton Carr. The Cal Poly signee scored seven points of his own in the fourth quarter and ultimately finished with 26 points. It was a team in which Carr has had success as he averaged 26.5 points against Rigby this season, in his last matchup with them he went for 21 points.
Carr and his Highland Rams now have a winner-to-state game ahead this Thursday at Hillcrest. It should be electric!
Madison wins 5A District 5-6 title
Madison looked to prove that their preseason ranking was not accurate and they did so Tuesday night by knocking off a very strong Hillcrest team to grab the 5A District 5-6 title. First year head coach Travis Schwab has done an excellent job with this group who will now head to the state tournament as the number 1 seed from district 5-6 and look to make more waves come early March.
This team gets contributions from a number of players and prospects as it showed on Tuesday. 2018 prospects Brigham Williams and Joe Dougherty both finished with double-digits in scoring as Williams went for 15 points and Dougherty finished with 14 points of his own. Spencer Hathaway has been a steady player for this bunch and he went for 7 points in the win, teammate Cameron Webster had 10 points himself.
Fun matchups ahead
A trio of games remaining this week has our attention due to the number of standouts for each respective team that will get set to do battle. When Twin Falls and Burley lock horns it will provide prep hoop Idaho fans with plenty of talent to zero in as both teams have an excellent set of players. Twin Falls heads into the game with their 2019 duo of Faust Ystueta and big man Mitchell Brizee, two players capable of leading the team past a very formidable Burley squad.
While Burley will look to lean on the recent hot play (and our latest PHID POTW winner) Ryan Bagley who will be flanked by 2018 Andrew Ferrin and 2020 guard Jace Whiting among others on the team. This game will be excellent and takes place Thursday.
When Mountain View and Rocky Mountain square off Friday night it will be a showdown between to 5A SIC heavyweights full of talent. Rocky Mountain will enter the matchup on a 12 game win streak that has been guided by the tremendous play of 2018 Tyler O’Donnell. The Ranstorm brothers (Hunter and Briggs) have also been playing well. Mountain View will look to lean on stud Jalen Galloway to keep his stat stuffing ways going along with the recent hot play of 2018 Cooper Anderson. What a showdown this will be!
Saturday night will feature red hot teams in 4A SIC play as the aforementioned Bishop Kelly will take on Skyview. Skyview will hope to avenge their loss in the last meeting between these two heavyweights. In the game Skyview won earlier this season, both teams scored over 80 points, and in Skyview’s loss to BK, both were in the 50 point neighborhood. It seems like Skyview will want to push the tempo similar to their first meeting and let their 2018 trio of Chris Kielman, Cayden Wright and Jayson Hibbard lead the charge while BK will turn to their reliable ace, 2018 Max Rice.