NAMPA - It's not about how you start, but how you finish.

And the Lakeside girls basketball team - no matter how big or small - finished the right way in its final two games to bring a trophy back to Plummer in the school's first state appearance since 2004.

Sophomore Lillan Rhea had 16 points and 10 rebounds, helping rally the Knights from a 20-10 halftime deficit to beat the Nezperce Indians 36-34 in the state 1A Division II consolation championship game on Saturday at Nampa High.

It's the first trophy for Lakeside's girls since the 1996 team placed third in A-4.

"Our team worked really hard to be here and it's nice to bring home a trophy," Rhea said. "Even though it wasn't first, it's nice to bring home a trophy to our community."

After shooting 4 for 22 in the first half, Lakeside got back into the game with 3-pointers by Jasmine Zahir, keying an 8-0 run at the start of the third quarter.

"That's happened to us the last couple of days," said first-year Lakeside girls coach Chris Dohrman, who coached the Lakeside boys to an 18-5 finish last season. "We've had a couple of bad halves and foul too much, and our defense was not quite there. But we woke up in the second half of both games really. We just need to learn how to play a full game and make things a little easier."

Lakeside opened its biggest lead of the game on a 3-pointer by Jordyn Nomee to take a 33-30 lead with 4:11 remaining. Nezperce's Arika Arnzen made a free throw to cut the deficit to 35-34 with 51.8 seconds left.

Lakeside's Cailyn Dohrman made a free throw with 14 seconds left, and Nezperce was unable to get a final shot to drop.

"We came back the last two games, and that's what I like about this team," coach Dohrman said. "They just don't give up. They might not be the most athletic group, but they hustle, they work and they scrap. They made me very proud today."

Rhea had 10 points and five rebounds in the second half for Lakeside, which finishes 12-11.

"We're a second-half team," Rhea said. "In both of our last two games, we've kind of played the first half trying to figure out what we need to do in the second half and it's nice to end the season with a win. We're definitely trying to come back next year, and maybe win. It was a really fun experience, with some team bonding and getting to travel. To play basketball with them, I love it."

Kourne Carpenter scored 11 points for Nezperce, which finished 15-8.

"We were still getting good shots, but my best players (Tianna Leitch and Arnzen) combined to go 3-for-28 from the field," Nezperce coach Dave Snodgrass said. "Lakeside's big kids, even though they're not that big, they've got some meat on them, they're physical and they just outmuscled us. Give Lakeside credit, they took care of the ball and their rebounding toward the end of the game really hurt us. We wanted to get out and run, and you can't do that if you're not rebounding the ball."

Nezperce 11 9 6 8 - 34

Lakeside 6 4 16 10 - 36

NEZPERCE - Carpenter 11, Arnzen 9, Leitch 1, Boyer 0, Nelson 2, Kuther 4, Sheffler 2, Stapleton 5, Johnson 0. Totals 13-58 7-13 34.

LAKESIDE - Nomee 5, Zahir 6, Daman 0, Hendrickx 0, Rhea 16, Arthur 0, Dohrman 9, Lambert 0, Speakman 0. Totals 11-42 11-17 36.