No. 2 West Valley breaks out, rips Clarkston

In the teams’ two previous meetings, the West Valley boys, the second-ranked 3A basketball team in the state, beat Clarkston by a combined four points.

In the 3A District 8 title game at Mt. Spokane Friday night, the Eagles won with a bit more room to spare.

Riding Tyler Hobbs’ 24 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals – all team highs – West Valley earned the district’s No. 1 seed to regionals with a 69-49 win over the Bantams.

Blowing open a game that was tied at 10 after one quarter, WV outscored Clarkston 24-13 in the second quarter and used a 20-4 run that spanned the third and fourth quarters to pull away and erase any thoughts of Tuesday’s double-overtime thriller, which WV won 82-80.

“We contained their penetration a lot better than we did in the first two games,” WV assistant coach John Graham said. “We’re a little taller than they are and they tried to penetrate against our big guys and our big guys just stepped it up defensively.”

On the offensive end, the Eagles (18-3) were simply too fast and too big for the Bantams (9-12) to deal with as WV shot 57 percent (28 of 49) from the floor.

Guards Arton and Rashad Toussaint continually penetrated and wreaked havoc on the Clarkston defense (the pair combined for 19 points) and posts E.J. Richardson and Hobbs drew constant double teams.

The Eagles played a light press that held the Bantams to 42 percent shooting (21 of 50). Clarkston’s leading scorer Ryan Turnbow, averaging 12.4 points per game coming in, was held to one point.

“That was just a team effort, baby,” said Hobbs, who finished 10 of 11 from the floor. “Everyone stepped up. Everyone hit a big shot or got a big rebound, our subs came in, did an awesome job; it was just a team effort, we all did a little bit to contribute to the win.”

Clarkston will play Cheney tonight at 8 p.m. at Mt. Spokane to determine the district’s No. 2 and 3 seeds to regionals.

Clarkston 53, East Valley 40

In a somewhat low-scoring, often sloppy 3A District 8 title game, the Clarkston girls recovered from a nervous start to beat East Valley at Mt. Spokane and earn their third straight district championship.

The win gave Clarkston the district’s No. 1 seed to regionals and forced the Bantams’ first regional opponent to make the long trek to Clarkston.

Facing an energetic EV press, Clarkston committed 29 turnovers, seven in the first four minutes and spotted East Valley an 8-2 lead to start the game.

Up 29-25 at halftime, Clarkston (11-10) came out of the locker room alive and active. The Bantams opened the third quarter with a 15-6 run that extended their lead to 44-31. They led 44-35 after three quarters and forced the Knights into 2-of-13 shooting in the fourth quarter to secure the win.

“We just all came into the locker room knowing what we needed to do,” said sophomore Misty Atkinson, who tied teammate Alicia Jelinek for a game-high 12 points. “We wanted to be district champions three years in a row, so we all went out and hustled and wanted it bad enough, and we got it.”

Clarkston, which shot 18 of 32 from the field, held the Knights (9-12) to 15-of-47 shooting from the field, including 2 of 18 from 3-point range, and forced EV into 22 turnovers.

The Knights will take on North Central tonight at 6 p.m. at Mt. Spokane in a game that will decide the district’s No. 2 and 3 seeds to regionals.