CCS advances to NWAC title game with 77-66 win over Big Bend

EVERETT – Top-ranked Big Bend held Levi Taylor completely in check in the early going.

Then he came off the bench.

Taylor scored 31 points in 31 minutes to pace Community Colleges of Spokane to a 77-66 victory over East Region rival Big Bend in the semifinals of the Northwest Athletic Conference men’s championship tournament.

“Levi’s a very high energy guy. He provides that spark off the bench for us and kind of gives us a big lift when he comes in,” said CC Spokane coach Jeremey Groth. “He’s very skilled, obviously he’s athletic. He does a lot of really good things on the offensive end. Tonight it was really a showcase of that overall for sure.”

The Sasquatch (28-5), who avenged a pair of league losses to the Vikings, advanced to Saturday’s title game at 8 p.m. against Whatcom (23-9), which beat Clark (23-8) 74-58 in the other semifinal.

Spokane gained control with a 14-4 run early in the second half, taking a 50-38 lead on Kage Sobotta’s 3-pointer from the left corner with 12:06 remaining.

The Vikings, who finished two games ahead of Spokane in the East Region and were ranked No. 1 in the conference poll, used their press to trigger a 9-0 run to pull within seven, at 70-63, with 2:01 left, but could get no closer.

Taylor, the former Lewis and Clark standout, was 12 of 17 from the field, including 2 of 3 beyond the arc, and 5 of 6 from the free-throw line.

“I just found a rhythm going to the bucket and you’ve got to stick with it,” said Taylor, who had to leave for several minutes in the second half after getting hit in the face, which resulted in a bloody nose.

AJ Knudsen added 11 points for Spokane. Mogga Lado had 21 points with 11 rebounds and Ryker Pierce added 20 points and 10 rebounds for Big Bend (25-8).

Taylor came off the bench to propel the Sasquatch to a double-digit lead in the first half, scoring 19 of Spokane’s first 27 points.

Taylor’s pull-up jumper from the lane put Spokane up 27-15 with 5:14 left in the half.

Big Bend, which was hampered by nine first-half turnovers, closed the half with a 14-2 run, cutting the lead to 31-30 on Leo Behrend’s jumper from the right baseline at the buzzer.

Groth, who played two seasons at Big Bend under coach Mark Poth, said he talked with his team about avoiding a letdown after the emotional victory.

“We’ll enjoy this for a couple of hours and then get back to business. Our guys know that we’re not done yet,” Groth said. “We’ve earned to get to the championship game, but we didn’t come this far to not give our best effort in the last game of the season.”

CCS women take fourth place by forfeit

In the women’s bracket, CCS (26-7) – which was scheduled to play in the fourth place game on Sunday – was declared the winner as Centralia forfeited. According to the NWAC website, five of Centralia’s seven team members violated the Centralia College Student Code of Conduct as well as the NWAC Student-Athlete Code of Conduct.