This was a great game with big shots, big comebacks and big implications as two of the top three 2A Western Idaho Conference teams squared off.
Most of the first half was back and forth. Cole Valley would stretch out to a 6 point lead and then Melba
would catch up.
But opening the second half, Cole Valley caught fire from the outside. Aaron Ray hit a couple of 3-pointers. Then Jacob Ybarra hit another. Melba had no answer and Cole Valley’s lead extended to 15 points.
Then, with about 2 minutes to go in the third quarter, two things happened. Melba switched to full court pressure and rattled Cole Valley. And Joey Nebeker started to take over.
Melba’s defense started to force turnovers and bad shots. And when they weren’t getting easy transition baskets, Nebeker was dominating. In the post, from the mid-range or even on a couple of possessions when he would bring the ball up the floor, Nebeker managed to pull Melba back into the game, scoring 18 of his 25 points in the last 10 minutes. They were able to close the gap to 2 points with just 2:00 minutes to go.
But that was when they seemed to run out of gas. The effort took it’s toll and Cole Valley started to execute better on offense and make their free throws down the stretch. The final score had Cole Vally winning 56-51.