Pirates sail to state tournament

By Dan Angell
dangell@journalnet.com
    AMERICAN FALLS — As soon as the buzzer sounded in West Side’s 60-43 win over Butte County, West Side junior JD Cook high-fived teammate Dallas Turnbow and broke into a big smile.
    He had certainly earned it.
    Cook scored 24 points and made sure that West Side’s season would continue as the Pirates clinched their fifth straight trip to the 2A state tournament on Saturday at American Falls High School.
    “We really wanted to focus on rebounding and playing defense,” Cook said. “The offense comes when you’re playing good defense.”
    The southern Pirates (18-6) weren’t happy about the way they rebounded on Thursday night in a win over Wendell. This time, West Side made rebounding the key to its game plan, then executed it almost to perfection.
    Once Butte County found itself limited to one shot, it got desperate and began to play at a tempo that was too fast for it to handle. That was exactly what West Side was waiting for.
    Several Butte County mistakes turned into easy steals for West Side’s quick backcourt, with the lead growing as big as 46-26 in the fourth quarter when Cook finished a layup after a Butte County turnover.
    “Our goal was to keep them off the glass and then make sure we executed and ran a little bit,” West Side coach Tyler Brown said. “We wanted to attack the basket, and it paid off for us in the first half. All in all, we played a pretty good game defensively.”
    Tanner Smart added 12 points for West Side, most of which came inside. With West Side’s defense flustering Butte County, interior baskets became plentiful and allowed West Side to play with a double-digit lead for almost all of the final three quarters.
    “We came out with some energy and urgency,” Smart said. “Something clicked in our head that said it’s do or die time, and we had to give it our all.”
    After playing its way into the state tournament with two victories, the Pirates won’t get a break when they reach Boise. Their state tournament will open at 6:15 p.m. on Thursday at Capital High School against Kamiah, which lost the state title to Firth last year by a point.
    However, Cook saw a positive in the fact that the Pirates had to take the back door to get back to the state tournament.
    “At the district tournament, we were in a little bit of a slump,” Cook said. “These last two games have helped us get back on track. It’s probably the best thing that’s happened to us. We have a tough bracket, but we’ve figured things out and we’re ready to go.”