Madison shoots 27%, falls in first round to scrappy Boise squad
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NAMPA — The three-seed Madison Bobcats came into the Ford Idaho Center as massive favorites, with championship aspirations, facing the six-seed Boise Brave.
No one who watched the game would have guessed as much, as the Brave grabbed an early lead and maintained control throughout the game en route to a 49-46 victory.
Madison head coach Shane Humpherys said Boise came in with a great gameplan. They made it ugly — not the way the Bobcats like to play — and physical. The coach said he believes this to be the program’s toughest loss since he took over at the helm in 2021.
“This sucks. This is terrible,” he said. “You don’t want to come over here and play like that.”
Boise jumped out to a quick 6-0 advantage, but the Bobcats answered with nine straight points from their offensive one-two punch of stars — six from Nash Humpherys and three from Carter Lerwill.
Lerwill made his first two 3-pointers, and led all players with eight points after one quarter of play. But he was nearly nonexistent from there on, finishing with 13 on 4-of-13 shooting — missing his final six attempts from deep.
Nash, who is among the state’s leading scorers, kept his team in the game, scoring 25. But he needed 26 shot to do so — shooting 7-of-26 from the field and just 1-of-7 from 3.
The key for the underdog Brave, guards Luke Soltau and Isaac Thacker agreed, was the defense of Eli Rich.
Boise head coach Manny Varela agreed, saying that Rich finished third in the 100-meter dash as a sophomore last season, and stars for Boise on the football field as a wide receiver. On the basketball court, Varela said, Rich volunteers for the toughest defensive assignments.
“Nash is arguably, I think, one of if not the best offensive player in the state,” Varela said. “But we think we have the best defensive player in the state, in Eli. … When those two run into each other, it’s going to be a battle for the ages. And it was. … It was fun to watch.”
But the defensive approach from Varela and the Brave wasn’t as simple as “stop Nash.” That, he said, would have been a “dumb approach.”
“Our gameplan wasn’t, ‘stop Nash,’ it wasn’t, it was ‘stop the others,'” he said. … “I watched more Madison film than I care to remember, and what I saw was that other teams were trying to stop Nash. That hasn’t worked. … Nash can get his, we’re going to leave Eli on his own. ‘Eli, good luck,’ we said.”
Asked if he could have foreseen cold games coming from both his stars, Shane said:
“I would have never predicted that, because they’ve been doing it all year — shooting the ball pretty well all year.”
Despite the struggles from their stars, Madison never let the Brave pull away. They were down by as many as nine in the second half, but continued to battle back every time it seemed Boise was poised to seal a victory.
Instead, Madison was within a play or two of snatching victory. But trailing by a single possession — 43-41 — with less than four minutes to play, the Bobcats turned the ball over. And after getting yet another defensive stop, they turned it over again.
Shane pointed to that series of events as the backbreaker.
“We didn’t deserve to win,” he said, adding that he was out-coached. … “I don’t know what I could’ve done. … I didn’t have them ready. I haven’t put my finger on it yet.”
Boise left the window open for Madison one final time, missing two of four free throws in the closing seconds and allowing Madison to have the ball a 3-pointer from tying the game with 8.8 seconds remaining.
But the Bobcats, who finished the game shooting 3-of-19 from deep, could not get the ball to their shooters — Nash or Lerwill. And the last-second shot from Bryce Wilson circled the rim before popping out.
Now, a Madison team that arrived in Boise with title hopes has to refocus on a consolation trophy — which will require back-to-back win to finish the tournament.
Shane said that getting his team to regather its intensity will fall onto the seniors.
“If they want to turn this thing around, they’ll do it,” eh said of his team’s seniors. “If they don’t, we’re going to get beat by 30. It’s up to those guys. I’m going to be there for them, but something I’ve learned — I can try all I want, I can motivate all I want … if the seniors don’t lead out and change their attitudes, say, ‘Let’s make the best of this thing,’ then we’re in trouble.”
Varela said his team, which will move on to play in the semifinals, will rely on its heart, grit and determination to continue toward a title — things he believes his team has enough of to bring home a banner.