A recap of today's first round state boys basketball tournament - with the previous day's blog posts and video from the KBOI 2 Sports at ten!

10:20 p.m. - Sorry for the lack of posts in the evening session - the arena wifi connection locked down and I couldn't get online. I'll actually be out of town the next couple days so the live blogging will be dark - but you can check out our partners, idahosports.com for live game streams.

Eagle, Borah make it through to semifinal round

Eagle rolled over Rocky Mountain today, and Borah escaped Lake City thanks to 23 points from Craig Spjute and 14 from Ben Tucakovic to move into the semifinal round.

Last year, no local teams beat out-of-area competition. This year, Treasure Valley teams were 1-3 against non-district III competition, with Borah as the lone winner.

Other Results:

4A: There will be a new state champion, following Hillcrest's 81-74 upset of defending champion Skyview. The loss is the second straight for the Hawks, which lost the district III title game to Bishop Kelly a week ago.

Speaking of the Knights, BK moves into the semifinals with a win over Jerome.

3A: Both local teams lost; Fruitland fell to Salmon, in a rematch of the last two state 3A football championship games, and Homedale lost to Priest River.

2A/1A: New Plymouth was the only small school from district III to make the semifinal round, beating West Jefferson 64-59. Glenns Ferry, Liberty Charter and Cascade all lost by double-digits.

4:30 p.m. -

Treasure Valley schools are unfortunately headed down a familiar road, 0-2 in the early games after Vallivue lost to Post Falls 55-53.

PFHS controlled most of the second half, but never by very much. Vallivue got a huge performance from Zach Kelsh in the fourth quarter, bringing the Falcons back within two, but free throw shooting proved the difference-maker for the Trojans in the game; 12-14 from the charity stripe.

The only two misses came after Kelsh got the Falcons back within two points with 2.3 seconds left - leaving Vallivue the chance to win on a desperation half-court shot. Kelsh got the shot, but banked it harmlessly off the glass.

Madison and Post Falls will meet in the semi-finals for the second year in a row. Madison won that matchup last year.

Eagle and Rocky Mountain face off at 6 p.m. tonight, followed by Lake City and Borah at 8:15.

3:35 p.m. -

Vallivue and Post Falls head to halftime tied at 27 each. Vallivue erased a 6-0 run by Post Falls to start the second quarter, and J.J. Hyde capped the rally with five straight points. Post Falls hit the 10-foul mark pretty early in the second quarter, and will likely be in considerable more foul trouble than Vallivue down the stretch if these two continue to play physical - which I doubt will change.

Stats from the Madison-Centennial game:
Wildcat's Josh Fuller led all scorers with 21 points, he also pulled down eight rebounds. Kyle Blanchard and Ryker Pierce had 14 and 13 respectively for Madison.

Centennial was led by the 15 points of Andre Sanor, and Hans Steinbrenner had a double-double with a dozen points and 11 rebounds. The Patriots shot just 39.1% from the field for the game, and were 12/20 from the free throw line, compared to Madison's 22/36 free throw shooting.


3:25 p.m. -

After one quarter, Post Falls leads Vallivue by one, 15-14. The Falcons came out of the gate pretty hot, grabbing an early four point lead, but Post Falls battled back with some good shooting from downtown (and some great fakes on his way to the rack) by senior guard Malcom Colbert. Colbert's got a mop of hair, and it makes him easily recognizable from last year's tournament where he was pretty dominating. Post Falls has just extended its lead to 21-14 early in the second quarter.

2:40 p.m. -

Centennial ousted by Madison in first round, 59-54.

Centennial cut a small Wildcat lead down to two points at the end of the third quarter, but couldn't capitalize on the offensive end when it needed to in the fourth. Two costly unforced turnovers by the Patriots killed important possessions, and Centennial was never able to tie the game in the fourth.

Madison put the game away at the line. Stats to come shortly. Vallivue takes on Post Falls next.

2:15 p.m. -
45-43 Madison leads.
4th quarter just started between Madison and Centennial. Much has been made of last year's 0-4 record of Treasure Valley teams on the first day, and Centennial has been battling from behind most of the game.

The Patriots did cut a 5-point Madison lead to just two at the end of the quarter.