St. George’s Breaks Away Defending Champion Dragons Make Quick Work Of Saints

Night session

St. George’s Chrissy Peterson, Edie De Niro and Melissa Harvill have big hearts.

“They’ve got great cardiovascular systems anyway,” Dragons’ head coach Ross Thomas said after his team ate Seattle Lutheran for dessert.

The defending champion Dragons (25-2) won 63-31 in the first day of the girls State B high school basketball tournament at Spokane Falls Community College.

In other night session games, Tekoa-Oakesdale (20-9) beat Mossyrock 48-44 and Manson (22-2) strangled Darrington (15-9) 56-40.

The Dragons are defending their title with a full-court press that looks like a fire drill gone berserk.

Peterson, De Niro and Harvill are all crosscountry state champions. Their lungs are clearly needed in Thomas’ high-octane defense.

“We’ve got a lot of people who can run,” Thomas said. “Chrissy, she’s going to Stanford on a soccer scholarship. You know in order to play that game you’ve got to be in shape.”

The Dragons used a lot of bodies to run the Saints ragged. Seattle Lutheran finished the game with 37 turnovers.

“I was pleased to be able to get the lead and rest the starters in the second half,” Thomas said. “We’re still trying to get together a consistent rotation without (Cherea) Davis.”

Davis suffered a season-ending knee injury two weeks ago.

Following that contest, the Nighthawks of Tekoa-Oakesdale recorded an impressive win. And it was all the more impressive given that its a team with just one senior.

“This is not a tested veteran club,” T-O coach John Jaeger said. “I was really impressed because they didn’t panic or crumple under the pressure.”

The pressure mounted when Mossyrock went on 13-5 run in the fourth quarter to cut a 34-21 deficit to 39-36.

In the end, though, with the Vikings forced to foul, T-O calmly stepped to the free-throw line and hit the shots when it needed to.

“I like the fact that we don’t have any star or stars,” Jaeger said. “I think we’re tough to monitor because you can’t stop one or two players and take us out of the game.”

St. George’s and T-O will play tonight at 6:30.

In the Manson-Darrington contest, Manson outscored Darrington 18-8 in the second quarter and 16-6 in the third quarter, then cruised to the win.

Manson will play the winner between Klickitat and Morton tonight at 8.