CALDWELL, Idaho — It’s been 16 years since the Whitepine League Division I failed to send a team to Idaho’s Class 1A Division I championship game.

The Ambrose School, after letting semifinal foe Potlatch off the mat, wasn’t about to let the streak stand.

The Archers from Meridian got two clutch free throws with three seconds left in regulation to send it to overtime, then only needed one basket — and some more shutdown defense — to inch past the Loggers 39-37 on Friday at Vallivue High School.

Ambrose (23-2) is back in the title game for the first time since 2016, when it topped Lapwai. Potlatch (21-3) will face the Wildcats in a third-place game at 10 a.m. Pacific today back here.

“It’ll stick with them,” fourth-year Potlatch coach Ryan Ball said of his team, which consists of 10 seniors. The Loggers were the classification’s runners-up last season. “They were really committed to the ultimate goal, and that’s the hardest part about the finish.”

Potlatch, which trailed 24-9 after an offensively sluggish first half, stormed back to grab a 34-33 lead late in the fourth quarter on a 3-pointer from Tyler Wilcoxson. Justin Nicholson hit another 3 soon after to make it 37-35, but Ambrose star post Paul Yenor — the younger brother of Lewis-Clark State’s Travis Yenor — got fouled with three seconds left.

He shot through the nerves, making both free throws on a 1-and-1 opportunity.

“Doesn’t get any more clutch than that,” second-year Ambrose coach Ken Sugarman said.

Yenor banked in a back-down turnaround jumper early in overtime. Potlatch opted to slow it down, but committed a turnover on the ensuing series. The Loggers had a shot at extending the game with a jumper from Wilcoxson, but it was off the mark.

“We had a chance to make something happen there, just didn’t get it to go,” said Ball, a former longtime Kamiah coach who’s been close to a state title several times but has yet to win one. “It’s just sometimes the way basketball goes.”

The Loggers outscored Ambrose 28-13 in the second half. They forced 10 turnovers after the break, and shot 73.3 percent to make up for a 23.5-percent first-half effort.

“They got back and didn’t give us easy buckets transition-wise,” Ball said. “In the first half, we just didn’t make shots, had some good looks.

“They kinda ran an unconventional zone. They get you a little bit on a tentative edge, and then we missed a lot of shots, which really puts you in a bind.”

Brayden Hadaller had 13 points and five assists, and Connor Akins tacked on 11 points as most of the all-league pair’s production came after the half. Wilcoxson added eight points, five rebounds and blocked three shots.

Potlatch trimmed it to 27-24 at the end of the third, when it went on a 15-3 spurt, a run highlighted by a corner 3 from Hadaller and an Akins midrange jumper. In a span of two minutes, the Loggers forced five turnovers and scored nine points.

“Both teams played their guts out. It doesn’t get any closer than that,” Sugarman said of a game which featured momentum swings with every second-half possession.

Yenor led the Archers with 14 points, and locked up Potlatch’s post scoring. Josh Johnson chipped in 10 points for a young Ambrose team, which only had one senior play (Yenor).

“It was gonna take everything we had,” Sugarman said. “To see them be so resilient, withstand some really hard punches down the stretch and make plays, it just shows our team has grown up throughout the season.”

The Archers, who lost to Potlatch by 13 on Feb. 9 in Riggins, switched their lineup, going with a quick set to counter the Loggers’ transition game — the catalyst in Potlatch’s win in February, when the Loggers went up by 16 early thanks to their fast-breaking offense.

“That was our No. 1 key — don’t let them get transition buckets on us,” Sugarman said.

Potlatch led 5-0 after five minutes, but only scored four points in the next 11. The Archers forced turnovers in spades and hit four first-half 3s to set an edge, and take all the early momentum in the defensive slugfest.

The Whitepine League champion Loggers started to look like themselves, but fell just a basket shy of extending the league’s streak, and giving themselves a chance at state title No. 1.

“This is one of the hard things about basketball,” Sugarman said. “That’s the kinda game where it’s tough that somebody has to lose.”

OF NOTE — Sugarman and Potlatch assistant Dan Akins — a former Idaho Vandals forward — played on a European tour basketball team together in the 1980s. Sugarman shared a long embrace with both Akinses.

AMBROSE-MERIDIAN (23-2)

Johnny Sugarman 4 0-0 8, Josh Johnson 3 2-2 10, Sam Roberts 0 0-0 0, Ben Blythe 2 0-0 5, Hudson Hughes 1 0-1 2, Paul Yenor 4 5-6 14, Mitchell Boeck 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 7-9 39.

POTLATCH (21-3)

Brayden Hadaller 5 0-0 13, Justin Nicholson 2 0-0 5, Jerrod Nicholson 0 0-0 0, Tyler Wilcoxson 3 1-3 8, Elijah Bouma 0 0-0 0, Connor Akins 5 0-0 11, Ty Svancara 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 1-3 37.

Ambrose 10 14 3 10 2—39

Potlatch 7 2 15 13 0—37

3-point goals — Johnson 2, Blythe, Yenor, Hadaller 3, Ju. Nicholson, Wilcoxson, Akins.

Clark may be reached at cclark@lmtribune.com, on Twitter @ClarkTrib or by phone at (208) 848-2260.