Vince Grippi

The Lewis and Clark Tigers were hurting. No, the girls basketball team wasn't mulling over their recent loss to University, which earned the Titans the Greater Spokane League regular-season title.

The sequel has been green-lighted. University and Lewis and Clark's girls basketball teams will meet again tonight, this time with the District 8 title at stake.

When Gonzaga Prep coach Mike Haugen watched videotape of the Bullpups' Greater Spokane League tiebreaker loss to University last week, he had one thing to tell his team: They had to play better defense.

It turns out there was a secret formula for winning the Greater Spokane League sixth-place tiebreaker games Friday night. Have Mead embroidered on the front of your uniform.

Josh Powell's putback with 1.8 seconds left in the fifth overtime lifted Shadle Park past host Mt. Spokane 65-63 Tuesday night and into next week's District 8 4A playoffs. Powell, a 6-foot-3 senior forward, had set a screen at the top of the key for sophomore Leo Avila with about 10 seconds remaining in the Greater Spokane League's longest game of the season.

Consistency has been elusive for Mead boys basketball this year, coach Glenn Williams likening the season to a mechanic tinkering with an automobile to keep it operating smoothly. The Panthers at home against Mt. Spokane were no exception for the better part of three quarters, but then they hit on all cylinders for the final 10 minutes of their 50-34 victory.

There are comebacks and then there are comebacks. The West Valley High boys rallied from a 12-point third-quarter deficit to defeat host Gonzaga Prep 62-59 in overtime Tuesday night, in the process dropping the Bulldogs into a three-way tie for second in the Greater Spokane League.

The first five minutes of the second half in any basketball game are always important, but never more so than Tuesday night at the Whitworth Fieldhouse. Trailing Whitman by eight, the Pirates women, ranked as high as 13th nationally in NCAA Division III polls, scored the first 11 points after intermission then hit their free throws down the stretch to rally past the Missionaries 67-61 in a key Northwest Conference game.

The Whitworth women's basketball team, which has built a 14-1 overall record and a 5-1 mark in the Northwest Conference, faces one of its sternest home tests tonight when the Pirates host Whitman College at 6 p.m. The Whitworth men (6-8, 2-4) will also host the Missionaries (3-12, 1-5), starting at 8 p.m.

With 10 minutes, 50 seconds left in Whitworth College's 75-52 victory over Pacific on Saturday night, the Boxers' Branden Kawazoe missed a contested 15-foot jumper from the right side. The Whits' 6-foot-3 George Tucker battled three taller Boxers for the weakside board, with the contact continuing until Tucker finally dove into the Pacific bench, tipping the ball forward as he was going out of bounds. Teammate J.J. Jones corralled the ball, found an open Jon Young upcourt and Young drained a 3-pointer for a 50-30 lead.

Cheney's Ben Camp hadn't grabbed an offensive rebound all night. The 6-foot-6 senior hadn't taken a shot in the fourth quarter. He got both in the final 3.7 seconds, securing Derek Miller's miss 10 feet from the basket, banking home the follow and giving the Blackhawks a 61-59 home-court upset of sixth-ranked West Valley on Friday night.

The George Fox Bruins must like shooting in the Whitworth Fieldhouse. They came into Saturday night's Northwest Conference game shooting 35 percent from beyond the 3-point arc. They left it shooting 41 percent.

John Wooden used to preach quickness over size, and though the former UCLA mentor never coached in the Northwest Conference, he would be proud to know his philosophy still works. Exhibit A was Whitworth College's NWC-opening 75-64 win over visiting Linfield before 850 at the Fieldhouse on Friday night.

In the old story of the tortoise and the hare, the slow-moving tortoise came back to win in the end. But in the basketball equivalent Tuesday night at West Valley, it was the speedy Eagles who held off Mt. Spokane 44-41 on the Greater Spokane League's opening night.

When it comes time to choose NCAA Division III women's basketball playoff participants, the selection committee looks at varied criteria, including non-conference games. Games such as Thursday night's matchup between the Whitworth Pirates and the visiting Concordia Cobbers from Moorhead, Minn., enter the mix.

There's a reason the Whitworth women's basketball team is ranked as high as 19th in the NCAA Division III polls. Four reasons in fact.