Lakeside, Medical Lake Coming Back For More

State A boys

Lakeside avenged its humbling first-round loss and Medical Lake found a team that had no chance from start to finish.

The reward Thursday for both Northeast A League schools was another day at the boys State A high school basketball tournament at the Tacoma Dome.

No. 6 Lakeside eliminated No. 5 Zillah 74-63 in a game many predicted would have been a winners-bracket game had it not been for Wednesday’s slip-ups. At last year’s tournament, the Leopards beat Lakeside’s Eagles in the semifinals.

Medical Lake (19-7) made a quick morning’s workout of Castle Rock (15-11) and ran away with a 61-39 win.

In today’s losers-bracket elimination games, ML plays Meridian (17-9) at 11 a.m., followed by Lakeside (19-5) vs. Life Christian (17-8). The winners will advance to Saturday morning’s game for fifth and eighth places.

Lakeside 74, Zillah 63

Lakeside’s George Petticrew controlled the first half, scoring 19 of his 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting. Teammate Billy Bender took over in the second half, pounding the Leopards for 24 points (10 of 22) after a quiet six-point first half.

Lakeside found its shooting (28 of 60 for 47 percent) after a night where it shot a school-record-low 33 percent

“I wish we could have yesterday (Wednesday) back,” said Lakeside’s Mike Dasenbrock, who added 15 points and matched Petticrew with six rebounds. “Today, we knew we had to work together to beat (Zillah center Curt) Pentecost. He’s a darn good player.”

Pentecost, a 6-foot-6 senior center who brought a 20.3 points per game average into the tournament, finished with 27 points and 11 rebounds.

He began to take over when his team needed him most, trailing by 16 points, 60-44, with 6:30 left. Playing with four fouls, Pentecost used his power in the paint to score nine straight Zillah points in less than 2 minutes. Kenneth Johnson, Zillah’s long-range threat, added a 3-pointer to complete the 12-2 run that cut Lakeside’s lead to 65-59. But Pentecost fouled out with 2:08 remaining when he charged into Ryan Day, and the comeback fizzled.

Bender and Day hit back-to-back buckets to give Lakeside a 69-59 lead with just 1:45 left.

“Billy didn’t have a good night last night (Wednesday),” Eagles coach Kevin Mulligan said of his top scorer (15.7 ppg). “And it affected all of them. They feed off each other. George picked him up over the evening.”

Lakeside 74, Zillah 63

Zillah 20 13 11 19 - 63 Lakeside 17 19 19 19 - 74

ZILLAH (63) - Johnson 14, Whitaker 5, Bass 9, Pentecost 27, Buechler 6, Schvoler 2.

LAKESIDE (74) - Nelson 9, Petticrew 20, Bender 24, Day 6, Dasenbrock 15.

Medical Lake 61, Castle Rock 39

If Dave Olzendam truly has his team believing fifth place is as good as first place, then the Cardinals coach is a lock for the mythical State A master motivator award.

“He told us fifth is as good as first place,” said Medical Lake’s 6-6 sophomore center Jeff Nichols, who helped the Cardinals blow out the Rockets with 15 points and five rebounds. “You get the same feeling as far as the drama goes.”

One more win for the Cardinals and the bus will be carrying a trophy back to Medical Lake, be it fifth or eighth place.

“We had a team meeting Wednesday night. Our feeling is we’re not going to go home without a trophy,” Nichols said.

Castle Rock was no match for ML’s up-tempo style.

“We try to do as much as we can with our speed,” Olzendam said. “Sometimes we use it too much.”

ML’s speedsters, guards Carlos Simmons and Andre Jackson, scored 19 and five points, respectively. Jackson recorded a tournament-best eight steals, one shy of tying the record. He also led the Cardinals with nine rebounds, all defensive.

Simmons was 5 of 12 from the floor and also chipped in with five steals.

Kris Campbell drained three 3’s in the first half and was 4 of 9 in the game. He is 8 of 15 in the tournament.

Campbell’s third trey in the first half put ML ahead 23-8. They were up 29-15 at the half.

C. Rock 5 10 11 13 - 39 M. Lake 16 13 15 17 - 61

CASTLE ROCK (39) - Keatley 2, McAllister 5, Masten 4, Lund 9, Seals 2, Davis 9, Halberson 2, Schwinn 6.

MEDICAL LAKE (61) - Jackson 5, Simmons 19, Campbell 13, Nichols 14, Moore 2, Brown 4, Miller 3, Bahr 1.

Blaine 65, Toledo 64 (OT)

Caleb Luehmann’s 3-pointer with 57 seconds left in regulation sent the game into overtime and Blaine then beat Toledo in a quarterfinal game.

Blaine 12 20 12 14 7 - 65 Toledo 15 20 16 7 6 - 64

BLAINE (65) - Newell 14, Wright 14, Ridnour 19, Nymeyer 2, Luehmann 8, Martin 8.

TOLEDO (64) - Merzoian 9, Jorgusen 24, Jorgusen 13, Wallace 4, Netteland 14.

LaCenter 63, Foster 53

Derek VanWeerdhuizen scored 27 points and had nine steals as defending state champion LaCenter (25-0) beat Foster (20-4) in the quarterfinals.

Foster 14 19 4 16 - 53 LaCenter 22 6 18 17 - 63

FOSTER (53) - Aziz 12, Sheppard 5, Wheeler 14, Lyons 8, Lenear 8, Lyons 6.

LaCENTER (63) - Newman 6, Smith 2, Renner 7, VanWeerdhuizen 27, VanWeerdhuizen 19.

Chelan 45, Highland 32

Phil Cullen scored 18 points and pulled in eight rebounds to lead the Goats (24-1) to a victory over the Scotties (20-5) in the quarterfinals.

Highland 7 6 7 12 - 32 Chelan 9 11 9 16 - 45

HIGHLAND (32) - Higginbotham 9, Weaver 11, Hollibough 6, Clayton 2, Cisneros 2, Borland 2.

CHELAN (45) - Dobbs 3, Nickell 2, Johnson 3, Cullen 18, Carlson 16, Miller 3.

Life Christian 46, Tenino 30

With sophomore Josh Davis scoring 20 points and collecting 13 rebounds, the Eagles (16-8) overcame a slow start to beat the Beavers (13-13) in a loser-out game.

Tenino 10 10 4 6 - 30 L. Christian 4 15 11 16 - 46

TENINO (30) - Coleman 10, Riley 4, Tucker 1, Johnson 4, Simpson 4, Evander 2, Rickert 1, Whitaker 4.

LIFE CHRISTIAN (46) - Wilkerson 3, Murray 5, Overfield 4, Davis 20, Lerew 2, Callaway 4, McCleary 2, Lee 6, Judson Lee.

Meridian 65, Goldendale 61

Junior guard Dominic Chambers scored 19 points and Meridian (17-9) hit all eight free throws in the final two minutes to hold off Goldendale (15-10) in a loser-out game.

Meridian 15 15 13 22 - 65 Goldendale 8 12 14 27 - 61

MERIDIAN (65) - Kratzig 13, Chambers 19, Strube 8, Henderson 8, Rogers 11, Jensen 6.

GOLDENDALE (61) - Wilson 12, Latiner 2, Hunter 2, Weiss 15, Marlow 13, Fahlenkamp 11, Berry 6.

, DataTimes MEMO: Changed from Idaho edition.