Pilgrims face talent at 2A tournament
By Scott Ford
Argus Observer
Thursday, February 28, 2008 10:25 AM PST
Boise — Despite only having two top five teams in the 2008 Boys Real Dairy Basketball Shoot Out, this years tournament is filled with some talented squads. Teams that have had to overcome tough district tournaments and had to pull off a few upsets to get to the state tournament. But that is what March Madness is all about, peaking at the right time.
This year’s field includes the top ranked Firth Cougars (21-2) with a power rating of 195.79, the No. 4 ranked New Plymouth Pilgrims (15-7) with a rating of 84.83, No. 6 Westside Pirates (16-4) with a rating of 78.48, the No. 7 Wendell Trojans (15-8-1) and a rating of 77.12, the Soda Springs Cardinals (14-10) are ranked ninth and own a power rating of 68.21 and the No. 10 West Jefferson Panthers (13-10) a rating of 52.45. Two teams outside the top 10 also have battled their way into the playoffs with the No. 11 Nampa Christian Trojans (13-11) and the No. 12 Orofino Maniacs (14-6).
The 2A bracket will pit Firth against Orofino today at 1:15, then Wendell will battle Soda Springs at 3 p.m. to complete the upper portion of the bracket.
Firth is coming off a huge 63-33 win over West Jefferson, and Orofino knocked off Grangeville in a play-in game 54-53.
The Wendell Trojans last defeated No. 2 Glenns Ferry 63-60 to get into the dance, while Soda Springs was seven better than a scrappy Melba squad, beating them 62-55 in a play-in game.
In the lower portion of the bracket, the West Side Pirates will take on the Nampa Christian Trojans at 6:15 p.m. then New Plymouth will wrap up the opening day of the tournament against West Jefferson.
West Side advanced to the big dance with a win over No. 2 Aberdeen 54-47, and Nampa Christian moved into the playoffs by defeating Kamiah 33-19 in a play in game.
As for the Pilgrims, they punched their ticket with a district championship win over Melba 55-48.
West Jefferson lost to Firth in the 2A Nuclear championship but still advanced to the playoffs for its second place effort.
New Plymouth is one of the hottest teams in the tournament, winning eight of its last 10 games, but no team comes in as hot as Firth.
The Cougars are a on a 15-game win streak averaging 63.6 points per game.
West Side is also coming in on a hot streak winning 11-of-13 games and they will battle a peaking team in Nampa Christian who has won eight of its last 10 games.
The Pilgrims are averaging 52 points a game and are giving up 47.5. Their opponent,West Jefferson is scoring 62.5 points a game and giving up 59 a contest.
