Slam-dunk start
The Northwest Christian and Republic boys have taken their first step toward a state title game rematch.
Both teams – along with St. George’s – finished with double-digit victories in Wednesday’s first round of the State 2B tournament at the Spokane Arena.
Though Republic coach John Gianukakis felt his team’s first day performance was off, the Tigers (26-2) made mincemeat out of Mossyrock (16-10) in a 65-50 victory.
“We got through the first round,” Gianukakis said. “Maybe it was not the cleanest basketball my kids have played, I don’t know if it was first-day jitters or what, but Mossyrock came out and played real hard.
“We can play better then we played, we were a little ratty at times, but we boarded well and we got the win.”
No surprise here – Derek Gianukakis, Cody Groth and Todd Orestad combined for 57 of the Tigers’ 65 points.
Gianukakis notched a double-double, finishing with 28 points and 10 rebounds. The senior made it to the line seven times and made 13 of 14 free throws. From the field, though, Gianukakis was 6 of 19.
“Derek played better today than in the past few games,” John Gianukakis said. “He can play a little better than he played, though, so that’s something to look forward to.”
The Tigers broke the game open in the second quarter, outscoring Mossyrock 17-9 to take a 29-20 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Gianukakis nailed back-to-back 3-pointers to open the second half, but Jordan Palmer led the Vikings on a 7-2 run to stay within range at 35-27.
After that, it was all Tigers.
Gianukakis scored nine points in the final quarter and Groth added seven. All together, Republic was 17 for 45 from the field.
“We shot the ball, as a team, a little better than we have the past couple of games,” John Gianukakis said. “We just need to move a little bit more and not stand around as much, we need to create a better flow to the game.”
The Tigers will meet St. George’s (21-7) in today’s quarterfinal.
The Dragons, led by 17 points from Henry Butler, defeated Evergreen Lutheran (21-4) 58-39 in their tournament-opener.
St. George’s coach Ryan Peplinski hopes his Dragons can come through, despite a 0-2 record against Republic during the regular season.
“You know, we know each other really well, so hopefully that old adage that it’s hard to beat a team three times will come true for us,” he said.
St. George’s took care of its first-round game on the boards. The Dragons, led by a team-high eight rebounds from Matt Vaughn, pulled down 44 boards as a team to the Eagles’ 30.
“I feel great about (the win),” Peplinski said. “That’s a tough game and our kids really executed the game plan well. I think the biggest thing is we really did a good job on the rebounding side of things – we tried to give them only one shot each time down.”
Defending state champion Northwest Christian (26-1) also rolled into the quarterfinals, topping Willapa Valley 55-37.
Senior Derek Iranon had a break-out game, finishing with 18 points, eight rebounds and three steals to lead the Crusaders.
“Derek’s playing with a lot more confidence and having (Matt) Zanbergen starting down low takes some of the pressure off on the rebound,” NWC coach Ray Ricks said. “Derek’s a senior and he really wants it, and tonight he came out and showed that he just flat out wants to compete. I’m glad that he came out and had a great game tonight.”
NWC forced 18 Willapa Valley turnovers and held the Vikings (15-9) to 14 points in the second half.
“I felt like we did a lot of things well,” Ricks said. “Offensively, we turned the ball over a few times, and we had too many fouls, but we were able to make some adjustments in the second half and really push the ball up the court a little bit and that opened some things up for us.”
Joe Grewe added 17 points and four assists for the Crusaders.
NWC will face Liberty Bell (17-7), which defeated Mt. Vernon Christian (12-10), in today’s quarterfinals at 7:30 p.m.