Chiefs can't stop Murtaugh

AMERICAN FALLS — With 4:30 left in Sho-Ban’s loss to Murtaugh, things appeared to be heading in the Chiefs’ favor.
    They had used a 7-0 run to cut the Red Devils’ lead to 38-36 and had a chance to push the lead even further when guard Shawn Running Horse got a look and fired a 3-point attempt.
    But Running Horse’s shot clanged off the side of the rim, and Murtaugh made sure that two points was as close as Sho-Ban was going to get. A minute later, Murtaugh forward Humberto Pacheco rebounded a miss and put it in, and the Chiefs’ offense disappeared.
    Sho-Ban did not score in the final 5:10 and its season ended one game short of reaching the 1A Division II state tournament on Saturday at American Falls High School.
    “It was hard for us to come by baskets tonight,” Sho-Ban coach Pete Conway said. “We had some momentum right there, but it seemed like all night, when we needed a big basket, there seemed to be a lid on the hole.”
    Conway and the Chiefs (15-9) had to be feeling that way in the final minute of the third quarter when Andre Graves made a steal and fed Lonzo Coby for a layup. Coby’s shot inexplicably rimmed out, keeping Murtaugh ahead 35-27.
    Coby would end the quarter with a basket, but the damage of the missed shot came when the Chiefs came up two points short of tying the score.
    Cole Takes Horse led Sho-Ban with 11 points, but he and his teammates had no answer for Pacheco, who finished the game with 30 points. When the Chiefs managed to slow him down in the second half, Austin Stanger had 13 points to fill the void.
    “We tried to face guard him and deny him the ball,” Conway said. “But he’s able to get open on his own without screens. Humberto stole the show tonight.”
    Sho-Ban’s other problem was that Murtaugh learned from an earlier loss to the Chiefs and set its strategy to slow them down. When the Chiefs couldn’t make baskets, their hopes of a state bid were foiled.
    Still, Conway was proud of what his team accomplished.
    “They shouldn’t have anything to hang their heads about,” he said. “We won three games last year, and (this year) we were one win away on consecutive nights from making it to Caldwell.”