They’ll vie for No. 11 this week at the Class 1A Division I state tournament at Vallivue High School in Caldwell.

“The Lapwai Wildcats have one thing on their mind this year,” coach Zach Eastman said before the season began, “And that is to win a state championship.”

They also have a big name on their side. NBA superstar and Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving posted a message on Facebook on Tuesday with his well wishes.

"Lapwai, you guys are an inspiration. I want you guys to continue on this journey that you are currently on, that you have been humbly asked to perform and do," Irving said in an almost two-minute video.

With the seven-time All-Star's inspirational message, Eastman’s team is almost surely the favorite to win again. Lapwai (17-4) has most of its players back from last year’s team that finished third at State, including all-state selections Titus Yearout and AJ Ellenwood, and rarely was challenged during the regular season. The Wildcats’ fast-paced offense has tallied 80-plus points eight times and enters the tournament leading the classification at 76.9 points per game.

Lapwai’s smothering pressure defense forces teams into hurried mistakes, helping the Wildcats win by comfortable margins more often than not. Their average point differential is plus-27.8.

Yearout leads the way as one of the state’s emerging all-around stars. The 6-foot-2 junior averages 24 points, 7.6 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 3.2 steals per game and, on Monday, was announced as the Whitepine League’s player of the year for the second consecutive season.

 

Yearout led all classifications with 29.5 points per game as a sophomore and recently surpassed 1,500 career points.

 

“He’s a complete player,” Eastman said. “I challenge him to guard the best players, to be a leader. ... To see him from his freshman year to now, his physicality, his body, everything has just grown. He’s just developing into a very good basketball player.”

Junior Kross Taylor (14 points) and freshman Kase Wynott (15 points, 7 rebounds) earned second-team All-Whitepine League honors. Taylor is a sharpshooter and “one of those kids you cannot leave open,” Eastman said, and Wynott, who stands 6-3, is “the next in line for one of our young players to really take this program to the next level,” Eastman added.

Wynott hit six 3-pointers en route to 30 points in Lapwai’s district championship win against Prairie.

In short: the Wildcats have several capable scorers and are clicking at the right time.

“Their teamwork together right now is some of the best teamwork I’ve seen them play,” Eastman said. “The way I’ve seen these boys play and the way that their team chemistry is right now, they’re making the game easier for each other and they’re having fun out there now too.”

Lapwai begins its state title quest at 6 p.m. Pacific Wednesday against the Liberty Charter Patriots (12-11). The team from Nampa is a mainstay at State, but hasn’t won its first-round game since 2013. Lapwai most recently faced the Patriots at State in 2018, a 68-37 Wildcats win in the opening round.

Liberty Charter enters the tournament with the lowest-scoring offense (46.4 points) among the eight teams in the field.

“They like to shoot a lot of 3s and they don’t really put a lot of pressure on the ball,” Eastman said. “They’ll try to force us to run a lot of offense and take tough shots. They do more halfcourt stuff.”

It’s hard to consider anything that happens at State "chalk” or an “upset.” The teams aren’t seeded and there are no point spreads.

 

But it’s easy to see: it will take a storied run to beat Lapwai.

 

Guernsey may be contacted at mguernsey@lmtribune.com, (208) 848-2268 or on Twitter @MD_Guernsey.