NAMPA – Rigby’s weapons have always lent themselves to state tournament games, the winners of which you can beat in many ways: with defense, with shooting, with passing play, with intelligence.
The Trojans have proven it all season long. They won regular season games with points and made district wins with defensive braces. Tylie Jones and Brooke Donnelly deliver the hit and Kambree Barber and Anastasia Kennedy deliver the defensive acumen. Everyone can also do almost anything that strengthens the team in a way that other teams cannot achieve.
Rigby taught Post Falls that lesson the hard way, claiming a 56-36 win Thursday night in the first round of the 5A State Tournament at the Idaho Center in Nampa.
“I thought we were a little nervous for the first three or four minutes,” said Rigby coach Troy Shippen, “but after that they calmed down.” I thought they really played this game with a lot of persistence. “
Rigby will play Mountain View in the semi-finals on Friday at 7pm.
In more ways than one, the win showed why Rigby is capable of going deep into this state tournament. Jones led her team with 15 points and seven rebounds. Donnelly received two triples for 10 points. Barber scored a total of 10 points on a perfect 4v4 shooting excursion.
It wasn’t just that. Rigby also got 22 bank points. That is important in itself, but especially at this time of the year.
“Our bank has been phenomenal all year round,” said Shippen. “It’s hard to scout because we have our first five, then we have five coming in and they’re all different players. How can you scout out each and every one of them? Sometimes they take risks on our bank and our bank has really produced for us. “
Together, they limited Post Falls to just 29% shooting and 14 turnovers. Only 16 points were scored in the second half and four in the fourth quarter.
More importantly, no Post Falls player has hit double digits. The club’s top scorer, Hanna Christensen, only scored seven points. Two of them were free throws. Three others scored six points, but together they only shot 7 against 20, which is 35%.
Now Rigby has kept six of his last eight opponents at 40 points or less.
“Our goal was to take every shot,” said Shippen. “We came here last year, they shot 70 percent from the 3-point line. So we wanted to deny every shot. We don’t have to block it, we just deny it. “
It worked wonders. Post Falls connected on only 4 of 16 long balls. In the second half, it only made 2 out of 10.
In the meantime, Rigby hit an efficient 3-on-9 from a distance. Donnelly splashed both attempts. Same goes for barbers. Rigby shot an unusually low number of 3-pointers. It didn’t matter because it could get almost any shot it wanted.
However, doing this on Friday will be more of a challenge.
Shippen admitted he didn’t know much about semi-final opponents Mountain View. The Mavericks won 65: 52 against Timberline on Thursday. Rigby will also have to defend point guard Trinity Slocum, but beyond that, Shippen said he needs to do some research and watch a movie.
That’s the challenge to play for this time of year.
“You are very talented. Super talented, ”said Shippen. “You have a lot of talent on your team, so we have our hands full tomorrow.”
RIGBY 56, POST IF 36
Post Falls 8 12 12 4 – 36
Rigby 12 21 13 10-56
POST FALLS – Skilar McLean 2, Trinidie Nichols 6, Dylan Lovett 6, Capri Sims 6, Americus Crane 2, Brielle Magnuson 3, Maya Blake 4, Hanna Christensen 7.
RIGBY – Naomi Nunez 2, Tylie Jones 15, Camryn Williams 2, Victoria Briggs 4, Kambree Barber 10, Hadley Good 6, Brooke Donnelly 11, Anastasia Kennedy 2, Brooklyn Youngstrom 4.
Greg Woods is a sports reporter for the Post Register. Reach out to him at 208-542-6772 and follow him on Twitter at GregWWoods.
