It’s The Finals, Frontier Parker Drives Cheney Boys Into Title Game

Cheney drew up a final play Friday to get the ball into hot-shooting guard Tucker Urdahl’s hands.

Lynden suspected as much and set up its defense to stop Urdahl.

All of which left 6-foot-4 post August Parker with a free lane to the basket.

Parker dribbled through the key, jumped high and put up a soft shot that bounced off the rim and through with 3 seconds left, giving the Blackhawks a 52-50 win over third-ranked Lynden in the boys State AA basketball tournament semifinals.

Cheney (19-8) advanced to the title game for the first time since 1980, the year before coach Denny Humphrey took over the Blackhawks.

Top-ranked O’Dea (28-0) put a crimp on an allFrontier League final by pulling away from Colville 56-47 in the late semifinal at the Tacoma Dome. O’Dea, the 1993 champion that had lost in the last three state semis, meets Cheney at 8 tonight.

Colville (18-9) became just the second team to play within 10 points of O’Dea. The Indians will play for third and sixth places at 2:30 p.m. today against Lynden.

Cheney 52, Lynden 50

Overtime looked like a distinct possibility when Kyle VanDyk of the Lions (24-3) hit a 3-pointer with 12 seconds left for a 50-all tie.

Cheney called timeout and put its faith in Urdahl, who already had four 3-pointers and 19 points.

But Parker, a strong candidate for the all-tourney team, found an opening to the basket.

“Actually, I was looking at August to still get it to me,” Urdahl said. “But there aren’t a lot of guys who deserve it more.”

Lynden’s final heave didn’t come close and the Frontier League had just its second finalist in a tourney that dates to 1969.

“I can’t promise a close game (against O’Dea) or anything, but we’re going to bust our (tails),” Urdahl said. “I guess I never really thought this would happen, but I’ve been in a lot of places (in other sports) where I had to compete at a high level.”

Lynden led 23-15 early in the second quarter when the Blackhawks reeled off 12 straight, including Urdahl’s back-to-back 3-pointers. The rest of the contest saw five ties, seven lead changes and neither team ahead by more than four.

Cheney, with Parker, Malasani and Eric Sobotta inside, held firm against a Lions front line of 6-6, 6-4 and 6-4.

“We didn’t change our zone defense because we didn’t think we were big enough to go man-to-man against them,” Humphrey said.

Cheney had a 34-23 rebounding edge, topped by Parker’s 10.

“(Lynden) knocked us out of the tournament last year, and I think they’re better than last year,” said Malasani, whose two free throws with 25.6 seconds left gave Cheney a 50-47 lead.

Lynden 18 10 12 10 - 50 Cheney 13 16 12 11 - 52

LYNDEN - Price 1 0-0 3, Maberry 0 0-0 0, Heeringa 0 0-0 0, VanDyk 3 0-0 9, VanderPloeg 4 7-8 16, Enfield 2 2-2 7, Heppner 1 0-1 2, DeLange 4 5-6 13. Totals: 15 14-17 50.

CHENEY - Stiffler 0 0-0 0, Waller 0 2-2 2, Urdahl 6 3-4 19, Donnelly 1 0-0 2, Parker 7 2-3 16, Malasani 4 2-2 11, Stoddard 0 0-0 0, Sobotta 1 0-0 2. Totals: 19 9-11 52.

3-pointers - VanDyk 3, Price, VanderPloeg, Enfield, Urdahl 4, Malasani. Total fouls - Lynden 11, Cheney 15. Fouled out - none. Technicals - none.

O’Dea 56, Colville 47

The Indians could match up with O’Dea in every way but one. Colville didn’t have a 6-7 jam artist to match Douglas Wrenn.

Wrenn ended the first half with a resounding dunk for a 27-24 lead. He added back-to-back jams early in the fourth quarter, one on an alley-oop, for O’Dea’s biggest lead, 46-37.

“It was a big momentum changer,” the junior said of the dunks 30 seconds apart. “You saw those (Colville) guys with their heads down after that.”

Colville had several chances to make the Irish sweat more, but missed its last seven field-goal attempts.

Before Wrenn’s slams, O’Dea used two brief flurries to take slim leads. A 7-0 spurt late in the first half led to a 25-20 edge. When Tim Sprangers’ layup mid-way through the third quarter tied the game at 33, Wrenn hit two free throws and Shane Makanani a 3-pointer to equal the biggest Irish lead to that point.

Wrenn scored 22 on 9-of-14 shooting from the floor. Colville’s Mike Bowland hit 7 of 10 field goals before fouling out with 21 seconds left.

“I don’t think any team will play O’Dea harder, and with more heart, than we did tonight,” said Colville coach Bill Pilgeram.

“They’re tough,” O’Dea post Kerry McDonnell said of the Indians. “They played their hearts out.”

O’Dea 8 19 13 16 - 56 Colville 12 12 13 10 - 47

O’DEA - Brown 1 2-4 4, McHenry 0 0-0 0, Burleson 2 0-0 4, McDonnell 2 0-0 4, Reese 2 0-0 4, Makanani 5 1-3 16, Del Fierro 1 0-0 3, Wrenn 9 4-5 22, Woodard 1 0-0 2. Totals: 23 7-12 56.

COLVILLE - Meinhold 0 0-0 0, Eslick 0 0-0 0, Ortner 3 0-0 9, True 3 0-2 6, Sprangers 3 0-0 6, Day 2 0-0 5, Bowland 7 2-3 16, Smith 0 0-0 0, Salina 1 3-4 5. Totals: 19 5-9 47.

3-pointers - Makanani 2, Del Fierro, Ortner 3, Day. Total fouls - O’Dea 13, Colville 19. Fouled out - Bowland. Technical fouls - none.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo