5A District III Championship Game

When you look back at the 5A District III title game, two things that may have seemed to be small pieces to this game’s puzzle were possibly the biggest factors of all.

First, Borah’s Austin Scott was not in the line up. Second, Centennial’s Nick Saras would match up on defense with Borah’s biggest offensive threat, Ben Tucakovic.

Scott not in the lineup had a trickle down effect on the Lions. With him out, sixth man Jordan Wright was moved in to the starting line up. And with Borah struggling early on offense (they would only score 2 points in the first quarter, 13 in the first half), head coach Cary Cada was forced to go to his bench quickly in the first quarter. Even though Borah is a fairly deep team, they had to rely on players that don’t normally play a lot of minutes.

Compounding the problem was the defense that Saras applied to Tucakovic. Saras is not a dirty player, but I would put him that gray area of tough defense and fouling. Regardless, he was a pest in Tucakovic’s ear, forcing frustration plays.

Credit Centennial’s entire team on defense. They forced a ton of early turnovers and captured momentum on offense through different players. First it was Faruk Huskic scoring inside. Then Patrick Manning started to get into a flow. The third quarter belonged to Daryl Robertson. Ultimately, Centennial’s game plan paid off and was too much for the Lions on this night. They would capture what is believed to be their first district tournament title since 1995.