Bonneville gets hot, goes on 18-2 run to earn comeback victory over Middleton
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MERIDIAN — Things were far from hopeless, but they definitely weren’t lining up the way Bonneville hoped.
The five-seed Bees (16-10) trailed four-seed Middleton by 12, 35-23, at the midway point of the third quarter. The deficit itself wasn’t insurmountable, but realizing the Bonneville offense had scored just 23 through 20 minutes of play made the task of putting together a comeback all the more daunting.
Come back is exactly what the Bees did. Bonneville went on an 18-2 run, to end the third quarter and start the fourth, and took its first lead of the game.
Middleton, which had controlled the game from the opening tip, fought back but the Bonneville onslaught was too much as the Bees sealed a 53-48 win, Thursday, at Rocky Mountain High School, to open the Boy Basketball State Championships.
Through the first two-and-a-half quarters, Bonneville could not get any shots to fall. Ryan Egbert, the team’s leading scorer, had an very inefficient nine points. And he personified the Bee offense, which was still looking to gather any rhythm.
After the game, head coach Cortland Hengel said that there were several timeouts throughout the night when there was no coaching, just discussions about what was missing.
“That was a lot of grit,” he said. … “We talked about understanding the moment, earning everything and digging in. They did that in the third quarter — they finally found that switch, and they took it.”
The Vikings took a 28-23 edge into halftime, then came out of the break blazing, scoring the first seven points of the third quarter.
Hengel took one of those timeouts with 4:32 remaining in the third. That was the discussion that yielded results.
Dalline Jardine got to the free throw line out of the timeout, and made both shots.
He followed with a steal, leading to an Egbert bucket.
Tye Cornwall answered with a deuce for the Vikings, but that was the last points Middleton would score until more than three minutes has bled from the fourth-quarter.
Tyler Jordan hit a triple on the other end, cutting the Bonneville deficit to six. Then Jordan put two more on the board in the closing seconds of the third — making it a 9-2 run for the Bees, and a 37-33 lead for Middleton.
Jordan kept shooting, opening the fourth quarter with a pair of 3’s.
Middleton, which had keyed its defensive focus on Egbert much of the night, began to load the defense to Jordan’s side of the court. And suddenly, with more space than had been in front of him previously on the night, Egbert got hot as well.
A pair from the senior brought the end of the Middleton draught, with Drew Holman scoring to answer Egbert. But Egbert followed with 3’s on each of Bonneville’s next two possessions — giving the Bees a 47-43 lead, the largest it had seen all night.
“He’s one of our multi-tools — he does everything I need him to do. When someone else isn’t getting it to drop, he can step up, and he did,” Hengel said of Egbert, noting that Jordan’s hot hand on the other side of the court made things especially tough for the Middleton defense. “Those are my two punches, my left and my right, and they did a great job.”
Cornwall answered with a 3 of his own, but Jordan came back, first with a free throw then with another deuce — with a a triple from Jardine serving as the dagger with 45 second left.
Hengel, who grew up playing basketball in Kuna, said he is very well aware of Middleton’s proclivities. He said, he was expecting the Vikings to defend a lead by relying on its physicality. But, the coach added, that’s how the game is played on the east side of the state, so that approach played right into the Bees’ hands.
“That’s a good formula for them. They’re very physical,” Hengel said, “but we’re from eastern Idaho — that’s all eastern Idaho is, physical basketball. … Don’t underestimate eastern Idaho, it’s a whole other world over there.”
Egbert and Jordan scored 19 apiece, while Cornwall led Middleton with 17.
@BonnevilleHoops goes on an 18-2 run to end the third and start the fourth. Comes back from a double-digit deficit to beat Middleton and advance. They'll play Preston tomorrow in the 5A semis.#idpreps pic.twitter.com/oaJwgk8ZSG
— Kalama Hines (@HINESight_2020) March 7, 2025
Before the game started, less than 10 minutes before the opening tip, Bonneville had still not come out to the court. They finally did emerge from their locker room, just over nine minutes before the game’s scheduled start time.
After the game, Hengel said that was a choice. His team, the coach explained, has been coming out of the locker room later than usual the past few week, including during the District Tournament. That has become the team’s routine.
“I was just trying to keep them on the same schedule,” he said.
With the win, Bonneville punched its ticket for a semifinal matchup with top-seed Preston.
The two teams met in January, with Preston coming away 68-50 winners. Hengel called his next opponent a tough, physical and athletic team, but added that his team will be ready.
“It’s the state semifinals, you’ve just got to show up and play your butt off,” Hengel said.
They are schedule for a 7:30 p.m. start at the Ford Idaho Center.
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