1994 Champions Open With Wins

Northeast B

Both defending state champions won Wednesday in the Northeast District B boys and girls basketball tournament at Spokane Falls Community College and advanced to the state tournament.

In boys action, previously undefeated Sprague-Harrington (24-1) incurred its first loss of the season at the hands of defending state champion Northwest Christian (18-8) by a score of 71-64.

In the other game, St. George’s (16-10) knocked Davenport (13-14) out of the tournament with a 68-61 win.

In girls play, last year’s champion St. George’s (24-1) held on to beat Wilbur-Creston (21-4) 68-67, and Reardan (16-9) defeated Inchelium (17-6) 74-53 and eliminated the Hornets from the tournament.

BOYS

NW Christian 71, Sprague-Harr. 64

Although the Sprague-Harrington Falcons led 23-15 after the first quarter, Northwest Christian’s Crusaders bounced back quickly to tie the game 34-34 at the half.

It was a one-point game until the last 2 minutes of the fourth quarter when the Crusaders went 8 of 8 from the free-throw line, hitting six foul shots in the last 30 seconds.

“This was the key game,” Crusaders coach Danny Beard said. “Sprague-Harrington is a very, very good basketball team. We’re really thankful and excited.”

Jeff Meyers led the Crusaders with 17 points and 10 rebounds while the Falcons’ Ryan Floyd had a game-high 29 points.

“That’s the best we’ve played in quite awhile,” Falcons coach Jay Aune said.

“We had a lot of respect for Northwest Christian coming in. The toughest thing is when you have a chance to win it at the end, and you know if you win you’re going to state and if you don’t, you have to win two more games to get there.”

The Crusaders will play the winner of today’s game between Almira-Coulee/Hartline (19-5) and Curlew (24-0) at 7:45 p.m. on Saturday with both teams advancing to state as the first and second seeds.

“We really wanted to get there,” Beard said. “At the beginning of the year, we didn’t know if we would get it done or not.”

The Falcons face the winner of today’s Republic (15-10) and Wilbur-Creston (13-12) game at 3:15 p.m. on Friday in a fight for a chance to be the third seed to state.

St. George’s plays the loser of the ACH-Curlew game at 7:45 p.m. on Friday.

NW Christian 15 19 16 21 - 71 Sprague-Harr. 23 11 15 15 - 64

NORTHWEST CHRISTIAN Whelham 0, Iverson 14, Murphy 0, Rapelje 15, Woods 2, Dunham 13, Klaja 6, Meyers 17, Crouch 4, Dryden 0.

SPRAGUE-HARRINGTON Newcomb 0, Floyd 29, Bly 17, Korby 0, Countryman 2, Schmitt 2, Hattrup 8, Colbert 6.

St. George’s 68, Davenport 61

Jason Ala led the Dragons with 21 points and six rebounds in their win over the Gorillas.

Tom Turnbough had 11 points and pulled down 10 boards for the Gorillas.

Davenport 10 20 13 18 - 61 St. George’s 18 10 18 22 - 68

DAVENPORT Hogan 6, Swain 12, Parsons 11, Goodman 5, Turnbough 11, Deal 8, Hammond 6, FitzPatrick 2.

ST. GEORGE’S Davis 11, Kennedy 0, Laugen 14, Ala 21, Cook 10, Treybig 0, Thomas 12.

GIRLS

St. George’s 68, Wilbur-Creston 67

St. George’s Dragons, the defending state champions, barely edged the Wilbur-Creston Wildcats after trailing the Wildcats by one point at the end of the third quarter.

Although Lisa Arden hit a 3-pointer with 4.5 seconds left in the game to lift the Wildcats within one point, the Dragons were able to hold off the Wildcats to earn the victory.

“Wilbur-Creston played great,” Dragons coach Ross Thomas said. “I thought they had a great plan to handle our press. I think this was the best girls basketball game I’ve seen in my life.”

Chrissy Peterson led the Dragons with 21 points and seven rebounds while Jessica Martin led the Wildcats with a game-high 36 points and 15 rebounds.

“I think the girls played really well,” Wildcats coach Mike Crowell said. “I think we played like two champions.”

The Dragons face the winner of today’s Almira-Coulee/Hartline (19-6) and Davenport (23-1) game at 6 p.m. on Saturday to determine first and second seeds to state.

“We’ve played Davenport in the title game the last four years,” Thomas said. “Four years in a row against them would be something really special.”

The Wildcats play the winner of today’s Columbia (16-8) and Selkirk (14-11) game at 1:30 p.m. on Friday to try to stay alive.

Reardan will face the loser of today’s game between Almira-Coulee/Hartline and Davenport at 6 p.m. on Friday.

Wilbur-Creston 20 11 18 18 - 67 St. George’s 20 15 12 21 - 68

WILBUR-CRESTON Martin 36, Arden 9, Allen 6, Llewellyn 5, Grant 4, Haden 3, H.Arden , Bandy 4.

ST. GEORGE’S Mann 10, Sadler 2, Innes 0, Trowbridge 20, Arthur 0, Harvill 2, Longinotti 13, Peterson 21.

Reardan 74, Inchelium 53

Tyna Titchenal led the Indians with 19 points in their win over the Hornets.

Emily Mallory and Kara Finley each had 16 points for the Hornets.

Inchelium 12 8 17 16 - 53 Reardan 11 21 25 17 - 74

INCHELIUM Watt 3, Kohler 2, Mallory 16, Swan 7, L.Stensgar 7, Boyd 0, C.Stensgar 2, Finley 16.

REARDAN Bocook 13, Humphrey 16, Echelbarger 2, Holwegner 2, Lovelady 9, Titchenal 19, Guhlke 2, Rohner 5, Krupke 2, Supinger 4.