Shadle’s Chris Anderson Leads Highlanders To State

Shadle Park’s two-win Saturday during last week’s Lamb Weston basketball tournament ended a three-year cycle of poverty for Spokane boys teams.

For the first six years of the east regional series, the Greater Spokane League broke even with Big Nine teams for state berths.

But during the past three years, the GSL had sent just two teams out of nine qualifiers to state.

Thanks to record-setting scorer Chris Anderson, the GSL again has two teams, including the Highlanders, currently playing in Seattle.

In two games played nine hours apart, Anderson scored 58 points giving him a tournament high 95 that beat the old record of Lewis and Clark’s Paul Mencke by 11 points.

“I just took what I got,” said Anderson, who got more than half of Shadle’s total during 62-48 and 49-40 wins over Eisenhower and Kamiakin.

The team broke a first-quarter tie to lead 30-19 at halftime against the Cadets. Trailing 14-5 early in the second quarter against Kamiakin, Anderson scored seven straight points in a minute’s time to put the Highlanders ahead 21-19.

“We came out tight we wanted to win so bad, and missed everything,” said Anderson of Shadle’s 2-for-11 shooting start. “Then everything started clicking.”

Shadle launched 12 3-point shots in the first half, making four.

Anderson made one more during a second half in which he scored 18 of Shadle’s 28 points.

“He’s the most valuable player of our league, scored 29 points in the afternoon, comes back and duplicates it,” said Shadle coach Darcy Weisner. “That merits a tremendous pat on the back.”

Weisner also credited the defense of Tom Mohr with helping get Shadle Park to Seattle for the third time in the 1990s.

Kamiakin’s active 6-foot-7 A.J. Giesa scored nine first half points but only one basket thereafter on two shots.

“Tom was the defensive key to the game,” said Weisner.

String runs out for Mead

Mead’s girls basketball team had qualified for and placed in seven straight State AAA basketball tournaments.

It is a record few have duplicated. Coach Jeanne Helfer would never take personal credit for the 24-4 tournament mark that included three state championships, second, third, fourth and fifth places.

“We’re just in a talent pool right now,” she said in an earlier interview. “It was not there when I first came.”

Inexplicably, after sharing its sixth GSL championship in eight years, last week the string ran out.

The team lost on the road to Wenatchee in a game in which the winners made 19 of 24 free throws, Mead 2 of 4.

Following a victory, the Panthers scored just one point in the first quarter against Ferris, and trailed by 14 points to start the fourth quarter before losing 39-35.

It was not the way it should have ended in Helfer’s last year before moving to Mount Spokane High.

But winning isn’t the be-all and end-all of a Helfer program.

“If that’s so, I’m in the wrong profession,” she said.

Except for Holly Turner’s 14 points a game, Mead’s girls could generate little offense.

The same held true for the boys, who also went out in three games. Allen Inderrieden was the only consistent scorer, with a 14.3 average.

No breaks from scheduler

Lakeside’s boys and girls teams got no breaks from the scheduler at the State A basketball tournaments.

The boys drew state runnerup Cashmere in its opener and ultimately finished fifth. The girls, who took sixth, drew the state’s fourth-, first- and third-placing teams.

Three Eagle girls finished in double figures for the weekend, but never really had the explosiveness typical of the season.

Brianne Jolley averaged 11.8, Linsey Heebink 11.5 and Nikki Petticrew 10.7 points per game. All three return next year.

It was the fourth straight state appearance and third time the Eagles placed.

George Petticrew continued to be at his best in Tacoma, scoring at a 19.8 clip, two points a game higher than last year’s all-state effort.

Also averaging in double figures were Bill Bender, 13.8 per game, and Mike Dasenbrock, 11.0.

Lakeside’s two-year mark in the A tourney is 6-2 and the team has finished as high as third.

, DataTimes