Valley, Jerome and Carey girls basketball teams punch tickets to State

MURTAUGH, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — The Valley Vikings scored an incredible comeback win over Raft River, Carey took a late lead and needed some luck late and Jerome used a fourth quarter run to head back to state as three of our four area teams in action on Saturday qualified for state tournament action next weekend.

Valley overcame a difficult start as they trailed by 13 in the first, by 11 at halftime and by 15 late in the third quarter, but a huge and-one from Alora Godfrey changed the game as the Vikings began clawing their way back as Raft River went ice cold.

Senior Joanie Lewis was a huge part of the comeback for Valley as she overcame a tough start to knock down two huge threes during the comeback.

Raft River had multiple chances to tie the game as time was expiring, but none of the three-point attempts fell as Valley stole a 54-51 win as well as a state tournament berth and they will join Oakley as the District IV representatives in 2A.

Jerome and Carey were both up in Mountain Home and their games were very similar to one another.

Starting with Jerome, the Tigers and Emmett Huskies were tied at 34 in the fourth, but Jerome pulled out an 8-0 run kickstarted by a deep three-pointer and that was all the defense needed in a 46-37 win.

The Tigers will be heading back to state for the second straight season and they will join the Mountain Home Tigers as District IV representatives in 5A.

Carey and Tri-Valley had maybe the most back and forth affair of the day as this one came down to the wire when the Panthers took a one-point lead with 28 seconds left thanks to two clutch free throws.

However, they would foul on the defensive end where the Titans shooter missed both, but Tri-Valley grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled again for two shots with 1.5 seconds left.

Once again, they missed both.

Carey needed a little bit of luck in the end, but they managed to pull out a 37-36 win and they will be joining Dietrich as District IV representatives in 1A.

Finally over in American Falls, Wendell took on North Fremont and despite entering with the better record the Trojans offense struggled to get things going against a solid team.

This game was never really in doubt for the Huskies as they will head to the 3A state tournament with a 48-31 win over Wendell, but for the Trojans this season marks a 14-win improvement over last year so that is something to build on moving forward.

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