Owyhee boys basketball gets payback en route to district title in first year of existence

MERIDIAN - It wasn’t the four overtime thriller like last time.

But that was perfectly fine with the Owyhee High School boys basketball team. Because this time, it was on the right side of things. The second-ranked Storm avenged their lone loss to a team from Idaho in a 71-49 rout of No. 3 Eagle Friday night at the 5A District III Championship game at Meridian High School.

The win gave the first-year program the school’s first title of any kind.

“This one is special, just because it’s year one and we’re so young,” said Owyhee coach Andy Harrington, who has now won three consecutive district titles dating back to his time at Middleton. “So for us to be so young with Jack (Payne) and Brayden (Hansen) being the only seniors, I was a little curious to see how we would come out.”

Junior Titus Bailey led four players in double figures in scoring with 18 points, including 5-of-8 from 3-point range. Sophomore Liam Campbell, who 247sports just ranked as the 35th 2024 recruit in the country, was right behind with 17 points. Payne, a Colorado State signee, and junior Barrett Fernandez added 11 points apiece. Payne had a double-double with 12 assists for Owyhee (21-3) in the highly anticipated rematch more than two months in the making.

The two West Ada schools met in an instant classic on Dec. 21, 2021. But it was Eagle (20-4) that came away the victor in an 80-76 win.

“The whole season,” said Bailey when asked if the loss stuck with them. “It was every day. It was getting ready for this game. So to go out there and prove it, is something awesome.”

The Storm didn’t let it come down to any late-game dramatics this time around. There actually wasn’t much excitement to be found outside of the raucous sold-out crowd, especially the student sections, who were trading chants at one another like “Jack’s (Payne) your daddy” pregame, and the game’s opening minutes.

The Mustangs scored the first four points before six different lead changes followed in the first five minutes of the game.

But Owyhee took the lead for good at 14-12 on a corner 3 by Bailey with 3 minutes and two seconds remaining in the first. Bailey had all five of his 3-pointers in the quarter and the Storm as a team made eight consecutive 3s.

“It’s contagious,” Campbell said. “We all started making them. But Titus really set the tone for our team.”

Eagle (20-4) hung around for most of the second, trimming the deficit to three points a couple of times. But Owyhee entered the locker room up 39-28 after a 9-2 run to close the half before completely blowing open the game in the third. The Storm began the second half with a 15-2 run, capped by yet another trey. This time from junior Preston Sherburne that made it 56-34 with two minutes to go and prompted the Owyhee student section to shout, “Why so quiet?,” at its counterparts.

The lead grew as much as 29 points with a little over five minutes left in the game on a 3-pointer by Fernandez. The Storm went 13-of-22 (59%) from behind the arch for the game in route to bringing home the school’s first trophy.

“We have a pretty empty trophy case,” Payne said. “So we’ll have something in there.”

Owyhee will play Mountain View at 7 p.m. Thursday in the first round of the Idaho Class 5A State Tournament at the Ford Idaho Center. No first-year boys basketball program has won a state title in recent memory.

“Our number one goal is to win state,” Campbell said. “We’re not finished. We think we can do it.”

Senior Donovan Jones recorded 14 points for the Mustangs, who will find out their seeding and matchup after Saturday’s state play-in game between Coeur d’Alene and Meridian.

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(All photos by Loren Orr)