They're so evenly matched, you get the feeling that the Richfield Tigers and Carey Panthers could play 10 boys' basketball games and each team would win five times and you'd almost have to flip a coin.
But Richfield (18-5) was the winner over Carey (18-4) when it counted Monday night in the Northside Conference tournament championship game played in a Shoshone gym full to the brim with blue Panther rooters and the Richfield red.
Richfield won 41-38 and took the rubber game in the three-game season series with Carey. The Tigers earned their fourth straight State 1A tournament berth and left defending Northside Conference champion Carey with one more game to play in order to make state.
Coach Garr Ward's #2-seeded Tigers went on a 7-0 run to end the third period ahead 30-27. Richfield maintained the lead in the fourth period led by junior point guard Braiden Buckner (6 of his 10 points in the final eight minutes, along with 11 rebounds and 3 assists).
Richfield's fierce perimeter zone and trapping defense was the difference in a battle that wasn't decided until Carey's Allen Peck rimmed out a legitimate 3-point attempt from the top of the key at the buzzer. It would have tied it 41-41.
The Tigers constantly out-hustled Carey and won the battle of the boards 34-23, many coming on the offensive glass.
On defense Richfield's hustling and youthful crew (2 seniors, 3 juniors, 3 sophs, 2 freshmen) exploited Carey's one true weakness, the lack of a penetrating point guard. The Tigers just threw defender after defender at whoever had the ball around the 3-point circle.
Carey coach Dick Simpson said, "Richfield played good defense tonight. They pushed us to the outside limits and did a good job and won the game.
"But we shot ourselves in the foot too much by missing too many opportunities and not capitalizing on good shots. We needed to get the lead but we didn't, and I just felt we did a lot of standing around."
Neither team shot well in the high-pressure atmosphere, similar to last year's Northside Conference championship won by Carey 48-41 over Richfield.
In that game, Carey (19-for-32) was able to get to the free throw line. On Monday, though, they had difficulty cracking the Richfield zone defense and made only 5-of-10 at the line, compared to Richfield's 9-for-13. When the Panther offense did get through and created scoring chances, they missed many easy shots.
Carey's best field goal shooter and second leading scorer, senior Brad Hunt, had a devil of a time getting a shot to go down before the half. The Panthers could have enjoyed a double-digit lead, but they settled for a 22-20 halftime lead.
When Richfield committed seven turnovers in the third, the Panthers couldn't capitalize again and couldn't take advantage of a favorable foul situation by getting to the line.
Instead, Richfield senior Shayne Buckner (a game-high 14 points, 10 rebounds) drilled a 28-foot 3-pointer for a 28-27 Tiger lead with 25 seconds left in the third. Then junior Brody Norman (6 points, 5 boards) got an absolutely huge offensive rebound, was fouled and made two charities for a 30-27 lead.
Carey never got the lead again. In the fourth Braiden Buckner went to work, driving successfully for a pull-up jumper, for a 12-foot bank shot and 34-29 Tiger lead and finally for two clutch free throws with seven seconds remaining.
A strong drive by Norman, who got the roll with 46 seconds left, gave Richfield a 39-36 lead and Carey missed three 3-pointers down the stretch.
Carey scorers were Peck (11 points with three 3-pointers, 3 boards, 3 steals, 3 assists), D.J. Simpson (8 points, 4 boards, 4 assists), James Carlson (8 points, two 3-pointers), Cody Baird (5 points, 3 steals), Kade Peterson (4 points) and Hunt (2 points, 12 rebounds, 4 steals).
Helping the Richfield cause were Miguel Tellez (4 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals), Luke Wood (3 points) and Tel Clark (3 points). Jose Rivas played some intense perimeter defense.
"I felt we played pretty good defense tonight, too," said coach Simpson. "And if we got a few rolls to go our way it might have been different. But we've still got our team goals, and one of the biggest is making it back to state. We'll just have to show up and play well against Bliss to get there."
Carey, a 25-point and 16-point winner over Bliss during the season, played the #3-seeded Bears Tuesday night for the Northside's second state berth. Bliss (13-9) defeated #6-seeded Shoshone (7-16) by a score of 45-39 in Monday's loser-out game at Shoshone.
Sixth-year Carey coach Simpson (125-27), having seen his team lose its chance for a third Northside tourney title in four years, was shooting for Carey's 11th state tournament trip in 15 years Tuesday night with a Panther win over Bliss.
You can bet Carey was hoping for a better shooting night.
They had it last Friday.
Shooting nearly 50% from the field (27-for-55) and 44% from 3-point range (7-for-16), top-seeded Carey opened the seven-team tournament Friday with a 66-43 victory over The Community School Cutthroats.
Peck (20 points, 3 steals) enjoyed the hot hand with 7-for-8 field goal shooting including 5-for-6 from 3-point land. Carlson (13 points) and Baird (13 points, matching his season high, with 2 assists, 5 steals) contributed big nights.
The Panthers (20 steals) did a lot of damage on the press against the short-benched Sun Valley boys. Other Panther scorers were Hunt (8 points, 2 steals), Peterson (6 points, 2 steals), Simpson (4 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals) and Tyler Parke (2 points, 2 boards).
The winner of Tuesday's game between Bliss and Carey automatically qualifies for the 16-team State 1A tournament Feb. 28 in Caldwell and the loser goes home for the season.
One more state seeding game will be played Thursday, Feb. 22 on the same Shoshone floor for both Northside champion Richfield and the winner of Tuesday's Carey-Bliss second-place contest.
Richfield will play Magic Valley Conference Southside champion Hagerman at 7:30 p.m. next Thursday for the top seed out of the Fourth District.
The winner of Carey-Bliss will face the winner of Tuesday's Castleford-Murtaugh loser-out tourney game next Thursday at 6 p.m. at Shoshone for the third seed out of the Fourth District going to state.
Hagerman (19-4) beat #2-seeded Castleford (16-5) by a score of 71-52 Monday for the Southside title, at Murtaugh.
Carey junior D.J. Simpson (#32) shoots over Richfield junior Braiden Buckner during Monday?s Northside Conference championship game in Shoshone, won by Richfield 41-38. Photo by David N. Seelig
