Preston’s Larsen drops 39 on Bonneville in 5A semis, sets stage for Saturday showdown with Hillcrest

NAMPA — By the time the fourth quarter rolled around in the 5A semifinal matchup between Bonneville and Preston, the intrigue was less about the outcome of the game than whether or not Reggie Larsen would score 40.

The Preston senior, who scored 21 in the first half, added 13 more in the third quarter — a quarter in which Preston removed any uncertainty as to which team would play for the title Saturday.

Larsen was removed from the game with three minutes to play and 39 points on the scoresheet. He was forced to sit on the bench and watch his teammates put the finishing touches on a 74-55 victory.

Head coach Tyler Jones said he wanted to get Larsen to the 40-mark, but the team having bigger fish to fry led to the star’s early departure.

“It would’ve been cool to get 40, but it got late enough — we’ve got to have him tomorrow, needed to rest him up,” Jones said.

As Larsen got to his team’s bench, before the substitution was made official, Jones grabbed him and the two shared a brief conversation.

Larsen said he understood the decision, while acknowledging that on the final possession before he was lifted, Jones called a play to get him the ball in the post.

“I wanted a little jump-hook for 40 — 41 — but I should have made one more free throw, I guess,” he said.

The 6-foot-5 forward finished the night 4-of-5 from the free throw line.

Larsen said that his 3-point shot felt “a little weird” all game, but he couldn’t pinpoint the problem. It found the bottom of the net so “it was all good,” he added.

Nearly half of Larsen’s misses came from beyond the arc, but that does not tell the entire story.

His 5-of-8 (63%) shooting performance from range was part of a 15-of-22 (68%) night from the field. And 39 points on 22 shots gave Larsen an 88% true-shooting percentage — which measures a player’s scoring efficiency.

Larsen was unstoppable out of the gate, scoring nine of Preston’s 17 first-quarter points. Bonneville tried mixing coverages and sending different defenders at him, but he didn’t slow down, putting another 12 of Preston’s 16 points through the hoop in the second.

But the third quarter was when Preston and its star grabbed the Bees by their collective stingers.

Preston outscored Bonneville 26-13 in the third period, and Larsen once again upped his output.

He connected from range, got into the lane and knocked down middies, and finished several through contact at the cup — converting on a pair of and-1 three-point plays.

Bonneville head coach Cortland Hengel said his head started to spin a little watching Larsen in the third.

“It got to the point where it was just a blur,” Hengel said. “In the third quarter, I was like, ‘Wait, what? He has how many?’ … We could’ve thrown anything at him, he was just hitting. He’s one of those players, when you’ve got that going for you, it’s tough to stop. It was surreal.”

Jones called it a “special performance.”

“He was awesome,” the Preston coach said. “I’m glad that everybody else got to see what Reggie can do — I’ve seen it since he’s been with us, and every day in practice, once he gets it going he’s fun to watch. He can put on a show.”

While Larsen took care of things on the offensive end — as the only Preston player to finish in double-figures — the team defense was as advertised from the 5A classification’s top scoring defense.

Bonneville was forced into 15 turnovers — nine on live-ball steals by Preston — and scoring star Ryan Egbert finished with just 10 points as Preston blocked five shots.

“All season, their goal was to get to the state tournament, to get to the Idaho Center and to play Saturday night,” Jones said of his players, none of whom had ever played on this stage before. “They’ve been determined and focused all year, waiting for this moment, and they were definitely up to the task.”

Preston is now one win from securing its first state championship since claiming four in a five-year stretch from 2016 to 2020.

To do so, they will need to beat a Hillcrest team that knocked off Twin Falls, 56-46, Friday evening.

Larsen, who after the game was talking with coaches about how pleased he was with Preston’s defense against Bonneville, said winning Saturday will come down to that defense.

“It’s all about defense and rebounds, that’s what we’ve got to do,” he said. “If we out-rebound them, we usually score enough.”

As for Bonneville, a team that had gone seven years without so much as a state appearance, and finished with a 4-19 record last year, third place was never the goal in mind, but would serve as a reward for a season of hard work.

“One-hundred percent,” Hengel said when asked if he would have accepted a chance at a third-place trophy before the season started. “The fact that no one believed we were going to be here in the first place — even when we got here, everyone was picking Middleton over us. … To go from 4-19 last year, and have these boys 100% buy into what I was trying teach them, and change with them, I can’t speak enough about my kids.”

He said that his team learned some very valuable lessons from Preston, lessons he wants them to remember while “flushing” the frustration, tension and anger that comes with a loss like this.

The first-year coach said that his team needs to “reset their mind”:

“All we’ve wanted was another opportunity to fight, to play for something, so that’s what we’re looking forward to.”