At Burley, the Hillcrest boys blew out Vallivue, 65-44, earning a spot in the 4A state tournament.

For the first time since 2015, the Skyline boys basketball team is headed back to the state tournament.

Kade DaBell sported a gray sweatshirt and a black backpack as he sauntered across the court, smiling as an armada of his Rigby supporters waited to celebrate with their hero. A loud bellow was the first greeting. Then, friends closer to his age mobbed him, forming a circle, jumping and chanting.

For the third straight year, North Fremont’s boys basketball team accomplished a first.

"He looked as cool as a cucumber," Skyline coach Clint Cornish said, referring to Isaac Farnsworth's two free throws with four seconds remaining in Wednesday night's 4A District 6 tournament game.

At Skyline, the Grizzlies earned a spot in the 4A district title game with a 55-51 overtime win over Bonneville.

Madison punched its ticket to the 5A state tournament on Tuesday night, downing Thunder Ridge 65-53 in the District 5-6 tournament.

Teton defeated Sugar-Salem 63-58 on Monday night, earning the 3A District 6 tournament title and berth to the state tournament.

NAMPA — The tears flooded as they posed for the picture they never wanted to take. Their coach made a speech and their supporters applauded, but the end had come for the Thunder Ridge girls, who exchanged hugs and wiped their faces under circumstances that signaled the conclusion of this won…

At Meridian, the Skyline girls basketball team, making its first trip to the state tournament since 2007, defeated Mountain Home 54-37 in Saturday's 4A consolation game.

NAMPA — Raimee Odum came striding out of the hallway, toward her Blackfoot players and into a state championship celebration she never could have predicted. Three-year-old Piper, dressed in a black shirt and jeans, bounded toward her mom and wrapped her arms around her leg. Odum beamed. Her …

NAMPA—In a battle of the top two 3A programs in the state, a dynamic Timberlake duo proved too much for Sugar-Salem to overcome.

NAMPA — These circumstances always figured to challenge Rigby, the team that had just fallen in a way it never had.

NAMPA — The first Thunder Ridge basketball team to earn a state tournament bid prepared for the championship game by dissecting game film over chicken fried steak.

Girls basketball

The Thunder Ridge girls moved on to Saturday's 5A state championship game with a win over Coeur d'Alene, while Rigby fell to Mountain View on Friday.

NAMPA — The avalanche unraveled in overwhelming fashion, baskets from Mountain View players who never seemed to miss, turnovers from Rigby guards who couldn’t maneuver the defending 5A champions’ clamps on the other end, losing turnovers around the basket and 30 feet from it.

NAMPA — Jeremy Spencer stared straight ahead, past the black gate guarding the empty court at the Idaho Center and into the maroon seats on the other end of the venue. A few scattered conversations filled the oval stadium, which was silent otherwise. Thunder Ridge’s head coach was racking hi…

NAMPA — The black-and-white plaque rested on the first row of the bleachers in a Nampa High gym that had mostly cleared out. Cut in the shape of Idaho, it stood out against the red stands, waiting for someone to pick it up.

This year’s Sugar-Salem girls basketball 3A state tournament opener couldn’t have been more different from last year’s. After falling to Timberlake in OT last year, the Digger defense clamped down on Bonners Ferry 70-10 Thursday afternoon, setting a state record for fewest points allowed in a game.

The Rigby girls moved on to the 5A state semifinals with a 56-36 win over Post Falls Thursday afternoon in Nampa.

NAMPA — Rigby’s weapons always lent themselves to state tournament games, the types whose winners are the ones who can beat you a multitude of ways: With defense, with shooting, with passing, with smarts.

MERIDIAN—With a limited capacity crowd at Mountain View High School and two District 6 rivals facing off for the sixth time this season, Thursday felt like an odd way to start the 4A state tournament.

NAMPA — Aspen Caldwell shook her fist and screamed, inspiring a party on her Thunder Ridge team’s bench. Teammates jumped and yelled and laughed between their socially-distanced chairs. The 3-pointer wasn’t unusual, but it was enormous, considering the stage of this 5A state tournament. The …

REXBURG – A full week off in the middle of a snowy February has a way of making a team rusty.

South Fremont senior Tag Bair topped 1,000 career points Tuesday, becoming the first Cougar boy in some time to do so. But, the last girls basketball player to attain the milestone is hard to forget. And she’s Bair’s cousin.

At Arco, the Butte County boys basketball team moved into the 1AD1 District 5-6 championship game with a 70-66 overtime win over top-seeded Grace on Wednesday.

At Nampa, Mackay dropped its girls basketball state tournament opener on Wednesday, falling to Carey 50-46 in overtime in the 1AD2 bracket.

North Fremont again topped the boys basketball state media poll entering the postseason.

BLACKFOOT – The 4A District 6 tournament began on Tuesday night, but it didn't start off the way the Blackfoot Broncos expected.

At Hillcrest, the top-seeded Hillcrest boys basketball team kicked off the 4A District 6 tournament with a 52-39 win over Shelley.

Demi Miller can still remember the pressure, the magnitude, even the cow blimp that dropped coupons for ice cream around the stands at Nampa’s Idaho Center. Fourteen years have passed since her Skyline team earned this trip to state in 2007, but the gravity of the Grizzlies’ accomplishment s…

Boys basketball

Boys basketball district tournaments are underway and here’s a first look at what to expect.

At Mackay, the Miners' boys basketball team kicked off the 1AD2 District 6 tournament with a 78-36 win over Leadore.

There was a time when the Thunder Ridge boys basketball team was the “new kid on the block,” coach Lee Toldson remembered.

We’ve officially made it through both the girls basketball regular season and district tournaments, which means it’s time for state. State tournaments begin on Wednesday, starting with the 1AD2 competition. Here’s a look at local teams’ first-round matchups.

At Idaho Falls, the Thunder Ridge boys basketball team closed out the regular season Friday night with a 53-46 win over Idaho Falls.

At Blackfoot, after a disappointing loss to Blackfoot on Wednesday, Skyline girls basketball coach Ty Keck said his team was down, but ready to get refocused for Thursday's rematch.

Smack in the middle of a timeout Thunder Ridge coach Jeremy Spencer called for the worst reason, his players formed a circle. Four minutes stood between them and their first trip to the state tournament in school history. They had spent the previous two seasons accumulating the experience ne…

SHELLEY – It was a regional play-in game where the winner moves on to the state play-in game and the loser goes home. The game involved two teams who were very familiar with each other in Snake River and Teton, runners-up in their respective conferences.

Thunder Ridge moved up a spot in this week’s boys basketball state media poll.

At Thunder Ridge, the Thunder Ridge boys basketball team earned the top seed in the 5A District 5-6 tournament with a 76-54 win over Rigby on Wednesday.

As Blackfoot made its way through its first season under new head coach Raimee Odum, the Broncos always fashioned themselves a well-connected machine. They wanted to balance things out, make the right pass, become a team so in-sync that defenses would struggle to account for every weapon at once.

Here's the latest on the girls basketball district tournaments.

RIGBY — Kennedy Stenquist let loose a scream and pumped her fist, her face red with exhaustion and wet from sweat. Thunder Ridge’s sophomore guard had just drained a 3-pointer in the last two minutes of Tuesday's 5A District 5-6 title game. The Titans’ first of the game brought them within o…

BLACKFOOT – It may have been the most important game of the year for the Blackfoot Broncos, but they didn't show any emotion as they went about their business against Hillcrest in Tuesday's 4A District tournament game.

Idaho’s girls basketball season is close to entering its state tournament phase, which means it’s time for the final state media poll of the season.

Note: This is the second of a two-part series previewing Tuesday’s 5A District 5-6 tournament championship game between Thunder Ridge and Rigby. This part is from Rigby’s perspective of the series.

Sugar-Salem’s girls basketball team won its fifth straight district championship with a convincing 62-20 win Monday night over the Teton Timberwolves.

At Hillcrest, the Hillcrest girls basketball team advanced in the 4A District 6 tournament with a 54-41 win over Bonneville.

Mattie Olson only heard the sound, the volcanic eruption of joy that signaled her layup had fallen and she had won the game at the buzzer, so she leapt up and dashed over to the scorer’s table, her Skyline teammates screaming and laughing and trying their best to hug their hero in white and navy.

Note: This is the first of a two-part series previewing Tuesday’s 5A District 5-6 tournament championship game between Thunder Ridge and Rigby. This part is from Thunder Ridge’s perspective of the series.

Sugar-Salem avenged last week’s loss in St. Anthony with a 80-70 home win over South Fremont in a high-scoring affair Friday night.

There's officially a new contender in the 5A District 5-6 race.