Kase Wynott leads Lapwai to record-tying 13th Idaho high school boys basketball state championship
NAMPA, IDAHO - The Lapwai High boys basketball team’s motto all season was “redemption.”
It ended up getting just that.
The Wildcats got payback over Lakeside - the same team that beat them in last year’s final - with a 67-54 win Saturday in the Class 1A Division I Idaho boys basketball state championship game at the Ford Idaho Center.
“It meant everything to me,” said senior Kase Wynott who logged a game-high 46 points. “Ever since that day, I’ve thought about that loss every single day. We wanted to play Lakeside.
“That was the message the entire year man, Lakeside. We thought about Lakeside. Getting ready for Lakeside.”
It was hard to blame him or the rest of the team for that mentality.
The Wildcats (24-2) hadn’t lost in 782 days. They had the state’s longest winning streak at 62 - one of the best in the nation as well.
So Lapwai was an expected lock for just the 12th three-peat ever in Idaho and the second in school history coming into last year’s title game. It had already beaten the Knights by 13 points earlier in the season.
But the Wildcats trailed by 23 points at the break. They did claw their way back to force overtime. However, Wynott had a rare miss from the charity stripe and a turnover before Christopher Bohnee’s desperation heave at the buzzer sailed wide right in a stunning 81-79 loss.
“Just to lose like that, it put thoughts in my head of what could I have done better?,” Bohnee said. But these guys stepped up. The coaches told me it’s not my fault that I was put in that position. We just got to work hard for (next) season.”
That’s exactly what Lapwai did too.
“Sometimes it’s a little bit of a relief,” Lapwai head coach Zach Eastman said. “There’s just a little bit of pressure off of you and then you can regroup and say, ‘What can we do to get better?’ Because there’s stuff out there that you’re missing when you’re winning. But when you lose, we reflect.
“We made the adjustments correctly.”
It showed Saturday.
Lapwai never trailed. The Wildcats scored the first six points of the game. A layin by Wynott midway through the second quarter pushed the lead to double figures at 23-13. It grew to as much as 22 points at 44-22 on another Wynott basket at the 5-minute and 51-second mark of the third quarter. Lakeside (17-4) wasn’t able to get within under 10 points until the start of the fourth quarter.
Photo by Brandon Walton
“That was the biggest thing we talked about all year is we have to come out to play right away,” Eastman said. “We have to learn to control our emotions.”
And they did just that when the game tightened a bit in the fourth quarter.
The Knights used a 16-6 run from the end of the third to start of the fourth quarter to get the seemingly insurmountable deficit down to nine points at 55-46 on a Brutus Sijohn layup with 6:43 to go. They very nearly made it a two-possession game just seconds later. But Qwincy Hall’s 3-point shot barely rimmed out.
And once Ahlius Yearout made a pair of free throws to put Lapwai back up by double digits at 59-48 with 4:51 remaining, Lakeside wasn’t able to get any closer.
“We weren’t going to let this thing go this time around,” said Yearout who finished with a double-double of 13 points and 11 rebounds.”
It's the third state title over the last four years and the 13th overall for Lapwai. It is now tied with Borah for the most in Idaho history.
The Wildcats have seven championships since 2002, compared to Borah’s six during that same time span.
“We start them early,” Eastman said about what the secret to all of the success has been. “We have kids that watch this growing up. Those kids that won a state championship, I have a picture of all of them at a state tournament. So they see this. This is what they’ve worked for. Some might not go to college. This might be their last game. But now they know that if it is their last game, they went out on top.”
It’s not the last game for Wynott. But it was the Utah State signee’s last in a white and baby blue uniform.
He came within three points of tying the classification single-game scoring record. Wynott was also just six points away from the all-time record as well.
But he still ends his prolific high school career as a three-time state champion and Idaho’s career all-time leading scorer. Wynott broke Kamiah’s Jared Mercer's record (2,589 points), which had stood for 31 years, on Jan. 26.
He nearly averaged a triple-double for the season with 35.9 points, 14.3 rebounds and 9.5 assists per game.
“I went out like Kase Wynott should. I went out with a bang,” Wynott said. “I’m kind of speechless. A lot of mixed emotions right now. I’m sad. I’m happy. It’s hard. I’m gonna miss Lapwai basketball for sure. Lapwai basketball will forever be my favorite for sure.”
Sijohn had 17 points and Tyson Charley 11 for the Knights, who had gone 423 days without losing to a Class 1A opponent before Saturday.
”We’re kind of complacent,” Lakeside coach James Twoteeth said. “After you win it, maybe you’re not so hungry as you once were. We were really hungry last year. This year, I kind of had to prod them a little bit.
“We’re a good team. But we just can’t show up and win.”
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CLASS 1A DII CHAMPIONSHIP
Tristen Smith totaled a game-high 18 points as the Mushers (23-3) claimed their first state championship since 1974.
Sage Patten and Troy Smith added 10 points apiece for Camas County, which jumped out to a 17-6 first-quarter lead and never looked back.
These two teams met for the state title in football in the fall with a lot of the same players on the roster playing Saturday.
Nathan Tweit nearly had a double-double with 15 points and eight rebounds for the Tigers (21-5),who were the defending state champions.
CLASS 2A CHAMPIONSHIP
AMBROSE 46, COLE VALLEY CHRISTIAN 43
Tyson Hughes bagged a near double-double of 19 points and nine rebounds as the Archers (21-6) won their first title at the 2A level and third overall.
Tristen Trevino also reached double figures with 11 points for Ambrose, which was swept by the Chargers during the regular season. They lost both of those games by a combined six points.
Isaiah Holsinger and Ben Beglinger had 16 points for the top-ranked Chargers (25-3), who had a chance to force overtime at the end. But Eli Kingery missed a last-second 3 as they just fell short of completing a 16-point fourth-quarter comeback.
CLASS 3A CHAMPIONSHIP
Asher Williams tallied 15 points as the Badgers (22-3) won their first-ever state championship.
Brody Rice chipped in with 11 points for Bonners Ferry, which fell in last year’s title game.
The game featured seven lead changes and four ties before the Badgers pulled away at the end.
Tyson Brown scored a game-high 27 points for the Timberwolves (18-8) in the loss.
