Chris Derrick

Shannon Russel picked quite a time to rediscover her jump shot. Russel, 3 of 11 from the field to that point, nailed a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left Thursday to lift Ritzville over Reardan 45-42 in a winner-to-state girls game at the District 7-B Tournament.

Gabby McClintock was part of an Eagles starting five that piled up 16 consecutive victories. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

The five-year wait, an eternity by Reardan's way of thinking, ended Wednesday. The Indians (24-0) strung together second-half runs of 11-0 and 15-2 to beat Ritzville 55-37 at the boys District 7-B Tournament and qualify for state.

By the time the District 7-B tournament ends Saturday, exactly half of the entered teams will have more basketball to play. Whether the Wilbur-Creston girls are among that bunch will depend on how they respond to a season-ending injury to their floor leader. Senior post Mindy Bandy, who averaged 13 points and eight rebounds per game, has broken her left hand and can't play for the third-ranked Wildcats at district, which begins today at Spokane Falls Community College.

When it became clear that Lakeside's boys and girls would win Northeast A League basketball titles, the rush began for second place. League champs and runners-up enjoy much the same benefit at the District 7-A Tournament, which began for girls teams Tuesday night. Both No. 1 and 2 seeds rest during the opening round and are automatically entered into the double-elimination portion of the tourney, which starts Friday at Mead High School.

Ryan Monroe slices for two points against Cheney. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

With a 20-0 record and a No.1 ranking in the state, coach Dan Smith has the Reardan basketball team turning heads again. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

Sidira Sisich, right, of Central Valley has firm attachment to gymnastics program. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

Class B league basketball tournaments will receive a lion's share of the attention this week, but one of the season's most intriguing matchups will occur away from the limelight. Lind and Cusick's girls, both of whom didn't qualify for postseason, have scheduled a Tuesday night non-league game in Lind that will end, either way, one of the state's longest losing streaks.

Frontier League Before Saturday night's game, Colville was the lone team to have beaten Cheney in Frontier League boys basketball. Colville's mastery continued on Cheney's home court, as swarming defense and balanced offense produced a 54-49 win.

U-Hi's Kalie Cossette, second in the all-around, scores a 9.1 on the beam. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

If State B basketball organizers have their way, tournament participants will attend school during the event's March 5-8 run. Tom Stebbins of Vision Marketing, a Spokane promotional company, is coordinating an effort to bring State B boys and girls players into local elementary schools.

University High's Coleen Pierce has been on the beam during this winter's GSL gymnastics season. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

Frontier League boys "Rebound" was the final word coach Joe Feist had for his West Valley starters before Saturday night's game at Cheney. That piece of advice hadn't sunk in after one lackluster quarter, so Feist switched to, "Attack the basket; turn and face." When Cheney strung together its second 11-0 scoring run of the first half, however, there wasn't much left for Feist to suggest. Cheney (9-4, 4-1), the clear aggressor, handled the Eagles 71-44 in a Frontier League game matching two of the four teams tied for first place as the night began. WV trailed by 20 points at halftime and never came closer. Cheney coach Denny Humphrey said the seeds for the blowout were planted one night earlier. "The confidence booster for us was to go to Pullman (Friday) and get a win," Humphrey said. "The kids played with the same defensive intensity today. We just tried to convince them that they had to build off that win." Statistics backed up the score's lopsidedness: Cheney 22-3 in offensive rebounds; Cheney 63-46 in shots from the field; and WV (8-4, 3-2) 21-10 in turnovers.

Frontier League girls Now West Valley wears the bull's-eye. Coach Mark Kuipers suggested as much Saturday after his Eagles (10-2, 5-0) won their 10th straight game by dumping Class AA top-ranked Cheney 58-46 at Cheney. Angie Kallas hit four 3-pointers and scored a game-high 18 for WV, which handed the Blackhawks (12-1, 4-1) just their second Frontier League loss in three years.

The State B Tournament is 41 days away. Do you know where your favorite team is? Since every team has played at least a dozen games, there's not much mystery left as far as who's playing well and who isn't. Now the question becomes: Who's going to make state and who's going to agonize over "what-if" scenarios?

Six days after losing to 0-10 Colfax, Lakeside beat 11-0 Medical Lake. Go figure. "We were really getting pumped up because there was all this hype over Medical Lake being undefeated," Lakeside senior Billy Bender said Friday. "Then we lost to Colfax (last Saturday) and people said we had no chance (against ML)."

The Sprague-Harrington player listened to coach Stacia Marriott's description of man-to-man defense, then spoke up when her chance came. "You know coach," she said, "here in the Bi-County we play a lot of zone."

Newport's Michelle Carrara (54) tries to stop Lakeside's Brianne Jolley. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

1. (Bob Bafus) 2. Colfax coach Bob Bafus teaches his players the finer points of free-throw shooting. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review 3. In retirement, Colfax High coach Bob Bafus will have more time to spend with friends such as 1959 grad Jug Daubert, left. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

Tricia Lamb has made her mark at the State B tournament, holding down sixth on the all-time scoring list. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

Paul Malisani will try to drive Cheney back to the State AA Tournament. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

Working three freshmen into the lineup becomes easier with someone like Tricia Lamb around. Lamb added a chapter to her storied career Friday by salvaging St. John-Endicott's winning streak with 15 fourth-quarter points during a 54-52 girls non-league comeback win at Reardan (7-1). The defending State B champion Eagles (8-0) have won 38 consecutive games. The record for B girls is 52, set by Raymond in 1988-89. "Right now we're 8-0 and that's all we think about," SJE coach Lorin Carlon said of the streak. "I thought we might be 4-4 by now, but the young kids are coming through." Eagles freshmen Desi Zuger, Breanna Schmick and Jennifer Headlund combined for 24 points, nearly matching Lamb's 28. The Washington State University-bound Lamb has scored more than 1,000 career points. Five of those points broke Reardan's hopes: a 3-pointer to tie the game at 50 with 1:04 left and two free throws with 6 seconds left for the win. "We tried not to dig ourselves in too big a hole," Lamb said after SJE rallied from deficits of 9-1, 20-10 and 33-26. SJE is 83-8 since Lamb's freshman year. Friday's result reminded Reardan coach Bryce Wilson of last year's State B matchup, when the Eagles rallied in the final minutes to advance to the semifinals. "You just have to get over that little mental hump," Wilson said. "You just have to have that finisher." Reardan's Catheryn Jayne dogged Lamb, holding the 5-foot-10 wing to 4-of-16 shooting from the floor for nearly three quarters. "She was one of the best to ever defend me," Lamb said. But Lamb hit a 3-pointer with 1:29 left in the third quarter, then made her first four field goals in the fourth. The final basket in the string gave SJE its first lead, 41-39 with 5:22 left. The lead changed hands four more times until the Eagles forced a steal with 49 seconds left. Lamb found the loose ball and hit a streaking Schmick for a layup, a reminder of last year, when sister Andee Schmick teamed up with Lamb. "(Schmick) had big points and some big steals out there," Carlon said. "Something good seems to happen whenever we put her in." Jayne's two free throws tied the game at 52 with 19 seconds left, then Kristen Turner fouled Lamb on a clear-out play. After Lamb's free throws, Jayne dribbled the ball off her foot out of bounds. Katie Supinger made 7 of 9 field goals and 5 of 6 free throws for Reardan. Lamb held Turner, a double-figures scorer, to eight, but the junior 6-footer was sick. "We've become progressively better," said Wilson, ready for a Bi-County League showdown with Ritzville (4-0 in league). "This is our first close game and the experience will help." SJE begins its Whitman County League defense Friday, after a non-leaguer with Wilbur-Creston. St.John-Endicott 54, Reardan 52 St.John-Endicott 10 8 13 23 - 54 Reardan 15 9 11 17 - 52 ST. JOHN-ENDICOTT Ki. Colyar 0, Ko. Colyar 0, Bafus 2, Kleweno 0, Lamb 28, Loomis 0, Zuger 10, Kile 0, Schmick 9, Headlund 5. REARDAN Jayne 7, Schwartz 0, Krupke 15, Evans 0, Soliday 3, Plummer 0, Turner 8, Supinger 19.

GSL gymnastics While waiting for the official announcement Thursday, University gymnastics coach Stacey Heaton wandered by the scorer's table to inquire about Ferris' margin of victory. When told her Titans had actually won by two-tenths of a point, Heaton insisted the news couldn't be correct. Heaton's parents, always accurate in their score-keeping, calculated Ferris winning by a tiny margin. Trouble was, two matters had occurred during the Greater Spokane League four-way meet at Ferris that nobody sitting in the crowd could have known. First, a Ferris performer on the balance beam had four-tenths of a point deducted for leaving out an element in her routine. Second, when Morgan Fransk completed her bars routine for Ferris, her score was flashed to the crowd as 8.5 rather than the accurate 8.05. So by the razor-thin margin of 171.0 to 170.8, U-Hi (9-0) won its 23rd consecutive GSL four-way and Ferris (8-1) slipped into second place.