Carey Panthers advance to 1A semifinals, Dietrich falls in heartbreaker

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — A tale of two teams on Thursday night.

The No. 2 Carey Panthers are heading to the 1A state semifinals while Dietrich lost in heartbreaking fashion.

The Panthers survived a scare Thursday afternoon, beating No. 7 Mackey 43-39, and advanced to its first semi-finals since 2021.

Andie Simpson led the Panthers with 14 while Heidi Rojas Esparza was also in double figures with 11.

Ali Simpson finished with nine.

Carey may have lost the rebound battle 36-32 but would hold on to win.

The Panthers will play No. 3 Rockland at noon on Friday. The Winner heads to the state title game.

Later that night wrapping up the final game in 1A, Dietrich would fall out of state championship contention losing to No. 5 Salmon River 41-39.

Salmon River would knock down a three-pointer with less than five seconds to go in regulation.

Dietrich had a look in the end but it wasn’t meant to be.

Kaitlyn Wannamaker scored 14 for Dietrich while Paje Van Tassell had 12.

As a whole, the Blue Devils shot 26.9 percent from the floor in the loss.

The Blue Devils fall to the consolation and will play Nezperce Friday at 7:00 at Nampa High School.