3A DISTRICT 1 GIRLS BASKETBALL: Tigers back on top — After hiccup last year, Timberlake wins eighth district title in nine years

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

SPIRIT LAKE — After her team missed out on qualifying for state last year for the first time since 2013, Timberlake High senior Ciara Soumas was determined to be back on the court when the Tigers qualified this year.

A little thing like a back injury and a concussion wasn’t going to keep her off the floor.

“I was very determined,” Soumas said after Timberlake beat the visiting Bonners Ferry Badgers 47-32 to sweep the best-of-3 series for the 3A District 1 girls basketball title 2 games to 0 on Wednesday night. “I really wanted to take the test, and be back. I wanted to be back by Monday (for Game 1), but it just didn’t work out, so I was very determined to get back today.”

Timberlake (20-2), No. 2 in the final MaxPreps regular season rankings, advances to state Feb. 16-18 at Skyview High in Nampa, and will open in the day’s first game at 11 a.m. PST vs. the No. 7 seed, which is to be determined.

Sure, Soumas scored just three points in the clincher — a second-quarter 3-pointer that helped the Tigers take a 36-20 lead into the locker room.

But just having the team’s lone senior back on the floor, after taking a nasty spill vs. Bonners Ferry in the spirit game on Jan. 27, was boost enough.

“Yesterday (Tuesday) she was cleared for full practice, and she was able to play today,” Timberlake coach Matt Miller said. “She said she wanted to go, and she took almost two weeks off, and so I want her lungs and legs back in shape. So we’ll probably practice way harder than we normally do these next five days, because she usually plays heavy, heavy minutes, and you can lose almost all of your conditioning in three or four days. So I wanted to play her fairly heavy minutes if she could handle it, and she said she was good to go.”

Malia Miller, daughter of the coach and one of two freshman starters for Timberlake, led all scorers with 18 points. Freshman Payton Young added eight

Markynn Pluid scored 13 points for injury plagued Bonners Ferry, which finished 11-11. The Badgers struggled against Timberlake’s full-court pressure, but kept it fairly close throughout. The Badgers could have drawn closer if they’d hit a few more of their decent looks, especially in a third quarter where neither team scored for more than four minutes, and the teams combined for seven points.

Timberlake didn’t score until Young hit a 3 with just over a minute to go in the third quarter. The Tigers were just 3 of 20 from the field after intermission.

But their pressure defense in the first half — coupled with 15-of-27 shooting — were enough to keep the Badgers at arm’s length.

Last year, Timberlake was the top seed, but was upended at home by Kellogg in the district title game. The Tigers battled back to reach the state play-in game, but fell to Weiser.

“It was a big bummer, especially for the seniors last year, and the freshmen who are now sophomores,” said Soumas, one of the few returnees to play on Timberlake’s state title team two years ago. “It was a big motivation for us all, because we realized we didn’t get that opportunity, and we all really wanted to experience it this year, with all of the incoming freshmen.

"My coach said our last game last year, we weren’t mentally checked in, so one of our goals for most every game is to be mentally checked in, and just bring lots of energy and encouragement on the floor.”

Since Timberlake’s first trip to state in 2009, the Tigers have only not gone twice — in 2010 and ‘13.

“I think the returners were really motivated to go,” Matt Miller said. “Me, I’m so competitive; I thought last year was really hard. The girls had a good season, we had a lot of ups and downs, but not going was definitely a shot to the gut. But I think the returners, they’re going to appreciate it more than they have in the past, because of last year. Some of the girls in the past, they acted like it was a birthright type of thing, and it’s not, and that reality hit them this year.”

Bonners Ferry 7 13 4 8 — 32

Timberlake 15 21 3 8 — 47

BONNERS FERRY — Petesch 2, Pluid 13, Blackmore 6, Abubakari 7, B. Bayer 4, Sumpter 0.

TIMBERLAKE — C. Soumas 3, Dickinson 2, Young 8, Nelson 1, MacArthur 4, Simpson 3, Needs 3, Miller 18, Chase 5.