This is part 2 of 4 state tournament previews
Centennial vs. Timberline
3:00 PM at the Idaho Center
These teams are certainly no strangers to one another. The Southern Idaho Conference rivals split their two games earlier this year. Now, in their third match up, Timberline jumps into the roll that Centennial was in just a year ago.
Centennial (18-5) finished the regular season in third place then won the District III tournament. They are led by seniors Faruk Huskic (6-6 post/forward), Patrick Manning (6-0 point guard) and Nick Saras (6-3 forward). Huskic and Manning do most of the scoring (both finished in the SIC Top 10, click here for the details) while Saras is their defensive ace (click here for an example). Huskic also led the league in rebounding.
Centennial is also deep. In addition to starters senior Andre Sanor and junior Aaron Maffey, they get a lift off the bench from junior Landon Kissinger and sophomore Daryl Robertson. All of them have had big impacts on games this year.
Timberline (15-8) is led by senior Marcus Graham. The 6-3 lefty finished third in SIC scoring and has amped up his game in the team’s last 10 games. Senior Ryan Tate is the other senior leader who isn’t a scorer but will bang around with anyone in the post. Timberline also gets contributions from a variety of players.
At last year’s state tournament, Centennial came in as the SIC #4 seed but lost their first two games. Consider it the experience factor which is now to their advantage. Timberline is this year’s SIC #4 seed and is making their first state tournament appearance since 2008. With both teams knowing each other very well it seems that experience may play a big factor.
The other factor is on the Timberline side. Who will step up on this stage? Candidates are junior point guard Jarid Downey and junior forward Jackson Reed. Both have shown that they can produce through out the year.