Shippen takes over late, scoring 16 in the final 8 minutes guiding Skyline to State tourney win

MERIDIAN — Trailing by eight and four minutes from seeing their season come to an end, Skyline handed the ball to the state’s all-time leading scorer. And Shay Shippen revealed her cape, scoring nine of her team’s final 12 points to erase the deficit.

But Shippen, who was playing with four fouls, wasn’t done. With seven more in the four-minute overtime period, the senior helped her team stave off elimination at the hands of Bishop Kelly.

Shippen and the Grizz had the Mountain View High School gym rocking, as fans from both sides went back and forth. But fans could do just as little as the Knights players to stop the Shippen onslaught as Skyline pulled out the 69-64 comeback win.

Skyline head coach Tyrell Keck said of his star, who finished with game highs in points, with 25, and rebounds, with 13:

“When she gets going, she’s really hard to stop. She had, not her greatest game yesterday, then it took her a minute to find her headspace. But once she did, she was fun to watch.”

Skyline needed Shippen’s heroics because it was the only way to beat a red hot Bishop Kelly team.

The Knights got major contributions from several players, led by Brooke Hutchinson who finished with 23 points.

Their surge began in the third quarter, which started with Bishop Kelly trailing, 25-24. But Hutchinson and company rallied for 24 third-quarter points to take a 48-24 lead into the fourth. The Knights push continued into the fourth, when the lead grew to eight — 53-45.

Keck said he saw his team “grind things out” coming off a rough loss to division rival Blackfoot Thursday night to open the State tournament.

“Obviously, we’re coming off of a really tough, draining game yesterday. … So you, kind of, expect a little of that loss hangover that we experienced,” the coach said. “But I don’t know what it was, in the end of the third quarter, middle of the fourth, they just had these sparks.”

Those sparks were courtesy of Shippen, who at one point scored nine straight Grizz points. And she showed the full bag in doing so, attacking the rim when her shot wasn’t falling. She finished tough contested shots inside; she forced her way to the line and converted the free throws.

The only shot she missed — or so it seemed — was a heavily contested and acrobatic flip as regulation expired in a 57-57 tie.

Then Shippen scored seven more, of her teams 12, in overtime — including making three of four on intentional foul free throws to ice the game.

With their win, Skyline earned the right to play for a fifth-place finish in state Saturday, when they will face Jerome back at Mountain View High School.

Though the season will not end the way he hoped, Keck said it is big for his team to claim the fifth-place trophy with a win.

“For the team, it’s a huge thing — so far, we’ve been fortunate to bring home hardware every time we’ve come (to State), and we’d love to keep that alive,” he said.

For Shippen specifically, the team hopes to send one of the best to ever play Idaho high school hoop out with a playoff win.

“I think it’s a meaningful thing, to end that career on a win, and be one of the last teams in the state to go out that way. And you get to bring home something to show for it. She’s already got all the accolades, but it’s just a final little bow on top.”

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