Abby Lusk did it again.

She just did it differently.

The Pocatello senior repeated as the Class 5A Player of the Year on the all-state teams, as announced by the Idaho Statesman, which hosts the voting process. She did so by averaging 20.4 points, 10.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 2.8 steals and 1.1 blocks per game en route to leading the Thunder (19-7) to an unexpected second straight state title.

“Last year, I wasn’t quite expecting it,” Lusk said. “This year I was pushing for it. It’s kind of just a staple of all the hard work I’ve put in.”

Especially since Lusk was the only returning starter and one of just two players with any real varsity experience. So she had to not only change her game, but lead in a way she had never done before.

“She won it as a completely different player — Abby 2.0,” Pocatello head coach Sunny Evans said. “She morphed into what we needed her to be surrounded by different personnel and still rose to the top.”

Her stat line reflected that.

Lusk scored 3.5 more points per game, grabbed 64 more rebounds and averaged nearly one more assist per game than she did the first time she won the award.

“She couldn’t hide from any of it — every game we needed something from her,” Evans said. “Her teammates learned a lot from her as far as work ethic, how to carry yourself, how to lead and treat people. She’s irreplaceable. She’s created a lasting impact that we’ll feel for a while.”

Lusk, though, wasn’t about to let Evans take a back seat.

“A lot of my accolades I would put towards her, because she’s really the one that’s kept grinding with me,” Lusk said. “She’s been my other mom. She’s been there for four years, every single summer and every single winter. I can’t thank her enough.”

The other coaches agreed,

Evans was named 5A Coach of the Year for a second consecutive season after guiding Pocatello to back-to-back titles for the first time in program history. But she deflected the credit anyway.

“It maybe should be staff of the year,” she said. “I have an incredible staff. We work so well together and I don’t have to stress about what my freshman coach is doing — I know she’s doing the right things. We truly are a program. Kids just know what we expect.”

Building that program wasn’t easy.

When Evans took over in 2019, Pocatello was coming off five straight losing seasons. She didn’t do any better her first two years, going a combined 4-40. But over the past four seasons, the Thunder have gone 79-22, won four straight district titles and brought home a state trophy every year.

“I wish we could put their names on the championship trophies too,” Evans said about her former players. “They played so hard and didn’t back down from a different way of doing things. They set the tone where if they could do that and not win, the new girls that came in had to do it too. By the time we started winning, there were habits and non-negotiables already in place.”

As for Lusk, it’s a fitting way to close out a prolific high school career.

She leaves as Pocatello’s all-time leading scorer with 1,560 points, 861 rebounds, 267 assists and 259 steals. This fall, she will take her talents to Gonzaga, which has made five NCAA Tournament appearances over the last six seasons.

“It kind of just cements the legacy,” she said. “All the extra things I’ve done this year just add so much more to it and make the whole high school experience mean that much.”

Rounding out the 5A honorees was Blackfoot’s Oakley Talbot. The freshman put up 14.7 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game in her debut varsity season.

She wasn’t the only local freshman to make the cut. Highland’s Mylee Stucki (14.6 points, 9.3 rebounds, 4.5 steals) earned a 6A second-team selection and Rockland’s Mahana Hatch (13.4 points, 8.2 rebounds, 2.6 steals) did the same on the 1A team.