Clarkston boys win
Clarkston rules the District 7 2A boys basketball roost.
The Bantams, runners-up to Pullman during the regular season, turned away West Valley in the second half of the tournament championship game Friday night, 63-47 on Eastern Washington University’s Reese Court.
“This team really has a lot of momentum going for it,” Clarkston coach Brendan Johnson said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been around a team that has this much momentum going for it.
“We’re always talking about two things: playing with poise and playing with purpose. We did that.”
Clarkston earns the No. 1 seed from the district into next week’s state tournament at the Tacoma Dome – its second consecutive state tournament berth. West Valley takes the No. 2 seed.
Cheney and league champion Pullman play for the third and final berth tonight.
Sophomore Dustin McConnell and senior post Drew Hansen scored 16 and 15 points, respectively, to lead Clarkston, with Dale Entel adding 10 more.
The Bantams held the league’s leading scorer, West Valley’s Jordan Lupfer-Graham, to 10 points, well below his per-game average of 18.6.
James Cahalan scored 15 points to lead the Eagles. senior Parker Flynn added 12.
“We knew that West Valley was going to throw a couple runs at us in the second half, and they did,” Johnson said. “We weathered that pretty well and kept on going. I don’t think last year’s team would have done that. I think last year’s team would have folded its tent and been happy to take second place.
“But this team has been through quite a bit. We had a 10-day layoff before we played Cheney (in the district semifinal). That was the big hurdle. We needed to win that game to get into state. After that game, all the pressure was off.”
WV started the game quickly. Cahalan drilled a 3 from the corner 22 seconds into the game. But by the second quarter, Clarkston was defending the 3-point line with a fever and forcing the Eagles to attack inside against the 6-foot-4 Hansen and a horde of defensive rebounders.
Girls
Pullman 51, West Valley 48: A year ago, Reese Court was a house of horrors for the Greyhounds, who came into Cheney undefeated (21-0) and left with the first of what would be back-to-back losses that kept them from going to state.
Friday the Greyhounds exorcised those demons, but not without a last-minute scare from the Eagles.
Pullman, undefeated in league play, capped its run through the district tournament behind Anna Albrecht’s game-high 19-point effort.
“Yes, there were a lot of bad memories here,” the senior post said. “But at the same time it was a big motivator for us. We have a lot of seniors who remembered last year. We were determined not to let that happen again.’
The Greyhounds led by as many as 14 points in the third quarter and limited WV to seven points in the first quarter.
But the Eagles rallied hard in the final quarter. League co-most valuable player Melissa Mauro scored six of her seven points during a 58-second span early in the fourth quarter as the Eagles halved their deficit with a 7-0 run.
Freshman Hannah Love scored seven of her team-high 16 points in the fourth quarter and fellow freshman Shaniqua Nilles cut the Pullman lead to four points with a 3-pointer with 23 seconds left, but converted just 1 of 3 free throws after she was fouled behind the arc with 12 seconds remaining.
As district champion, the Greyhounds earn a No. 1 seed into next week’s state tournament in Tacoma.
West Valley, headed to its first state tournament in 11 years, is the No. 2 seed while Clarkston and Medical Lake meet today in a loser-out game to determine the No. 3 seed.