Pocatello boys basketball players hold up the 4A District 5 plaque after beating Preston Saturday night.
Pocatello guard Mason Zweigart dribbles on a fast break during Saturday's district tournament game against Preston.
Pocatello head coach Joe Green cuts down the net after beating Preston Saturday night for the district title.
Pocatello's bench celebrates a play during Saturday's district tournament game against Preston.
Pocatello guard Julian Bowie sizes up a Preston defender during Saturday's district tournament game.
Pocatello guard Julian Bowie fights through contact at the rim during Saturday's district tournament game against Preston.
Pocatello guard Kesler Vaughan tries to drive by a Preston defender during Saturday's district tournament game.
The last thing Joe Green wanted to think about was the game. So to help Saturday pass faster, he busied himself all kinds of ways. He did some cleaning around the house. He went on a walk around the Pocatello gym. He visited the Pine Ridge Mall. He went to Dick’s Sporting Goods. Anything to take his mind off the nerves, off the circumstances around his Poky team’s district title clash with Preston that evening.
“If I saw some shoes at Dick’s, I was gonna buy some,” Green said.
Hours later, after Pocatello followed an early deficit with a game-shattering run and ran away from Preston for the 4A District 5 crown, using a 53-35 victory to earn a second-straight trip to the 4A state tournament, this much became clear: Green was right to turn down buying shoes. His team earned a pair of dancing slippers for next week’s tournament.
The Thunder earned the right to return to Boise, the right to try to avenge their loss in last year’s state title game, by erasing a 15-4 deficit with a 25-2 run, leaping ahead in the second quarter and turning the rest of the game into a romp. Poky guard Julian Bowie posted a game-best 23 points for the Thunder, who also got nine from Kesler Vaughan and eight from Mason Zweigart.
That all belies the real reason Pocatello earned its second straight win over Preston, though, which is this: The Thunder unsheathed immaculate defense at the perfect time. They yielded just two points in the second frame. They forced 16 turnovers total. Six-foot-nine center Gage Ontiveros discouraged drives into the paint with the wingspan of Doc Ock from Spider-Man.
Poky parlayed those stops into what felt like a million transition opportunities, which looked like layups from Bowie, triples for Vaughan, kill shots from Zweigart, who connected on two of his three long balls. If the turnaround surprised you, well, you might not have watched much Poky basketball this winter.
“We’re really tough in transition,” Vaughan said. “Jules is great in transition, Krue (Hales) is great in transition. Not a lot of teams can stop us coming down the lane really fast. I mean, we’re good in half-court sets, but we’re great in transition.”
With the win, Pocatello has earned the 4A state tournament’s No. 2 seed. The Thunder will face seventh-seeded Bishop Kelly — who they routed 73-49 back in December — at noon in Thursday’s first round. That game is set for Rocky Mountain High in Meridian.
Pocatello is making the trip because, on Saturday night, it did all the things that got it here: Solid offense, which produced six treys and a 41% shooting mark. Stifling defense, which limited Preston to a 31% shooting mark, including just 4-for-19 from deep. Plus a tendency to make plays that other teams just cannot.
The one that shone brightest came from Bowie, who delivered a fourth-quarter sequence that went like this: He lost a turnover near mid-court, but as the Preston defender corralled the ball and tried to pass it overhead to his teammate down the court, Bowie snatched the ball out of the air. He took a dribble toward the basket and lasered a pass to Vaughan, who misfired on a 3. Then Bowie skied for the rebound, pulled it down over a Preston defender, missed the shot, then grabbed another rebound and stuck that back for a bucket — through a foul. And one.
Bowie released a primal scream, the kind you unleash when you make a play that most everyone else in the state cannot.
“I don’t like getting turnovers,” Bowie said. “So I was mad. I was like, all right, I gotta get this back.”
Next week, Poky can get a lot more back than a single turnover. The Thunder have a chance to avenge their loss in last year’s state championship game to Hillcrest, a lopsided setback that signaled that perhaps they have more progress to make.
So this winter, all Pocatello has done is twirl a magical season, a two-loss odyssey that began with 18 straight wins, a 22-victory journey that has featured enough drama for two seasons. To wit: The Thunder’s unbeaten season came to an end in late January, with a loss to 5A Madison, and a week later, they visited Preston, where Bowie sank three free throws in the final second — good for a 51-50 win over a district foe.
Poky didn’t meet the same fate last week, when it suffered a 57-54 loss to Preston in this district tournament’s second round, forcing the Thunder to fend off the Indians on the road on Thursday — check — and again on Saturday — check — to secure the tournament title and a spot at state.
Pocatello took the long way to earn this championship. The Thunder will have to travel even further to win the one they really care about.
{div class=”asset-tagline text-muted”}Greg Woods is a sports reporter at the Idaho State Journal. Follow him on Twitter at GregWWoods.{/div}
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