Freshman Shoots Griz To State A

High school freshmen rarely are the leaders of their basketball teams, the leading scorer and, most importantly, the go-to player in the clutch.

One of those rare players is Carey Sauer of the Newport Grizzlies’ girls team.

Sauer scored 36 points on 13-for-21 shooting from the field to propel the Grizzlies past the Colfax Bulldogs 66-47 Saturday night at Mead High School for the No. 2 seed from the Northeast A League to the state tournament in Tacoma next weekend.

In the boys game, the Lakeside Eagles toppled the Freeman Scotties 49-41 to earn the league’s No. 2 seed to state.

Friday night, the Chewelah boys and Lakeside girls wrapped up the No. 1 seedings.

Girls

Newport 66, Colfax 47

Sauer shot well from the beginning, scoring 15 of the Grizzlies’ 17 first-quarter points as Newport (18-6) returns to state for the first time since 1985. The loss eliminated the sixth-ranked Bulldogs (19-4).

And Sauer collected an assist on the only basket she didn’t make in the first quarter.

“I just tried to be patient and get in the groove,” the 14-year-old guard said. “Our team was giving me good passes.”

Newport’s defense was also stifling, holding Colfax to 10-for-28 shooting (36 percent) from the field in the first half and 8 for 31 (26 percent) in the second half. In addition, the Bulldogs were only 8 of 20 from the free-throw line.

Despite Sauer’s first-quarter heroics, Newport found itself only up 17-16. That was partly due to the temporary loss of post Michele Carrara, who picked up her second foul less than 3 minutes into the game. Carrara sat out the rest of the half.

But the Grizzlies were able to push their lead to 31-23 with 2 minutes, 20 seconds left in the first half behind four points apiece from Sauer and Heidi Schulz.

A 10-4 run to end the third quarter opened the margin to 47-37.

Sauer single-handedly put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter, scoring 11 points. She was also 5 of 6 from the free-throw line in the final period, 9 of 11 for the game.

“Today, she finally opened up,” Newport coach Mike Frederick said. “She stayed in control and everybody worked hard to get her open shots.”

Brooke Hansen led Colfax with 14.

Colfax 16 11 10 10 - 47

Newport 17 14 16 19 - 66

COLFAX T.Pittman 3, Gigray 1, Harder 5, Saulie-Rohman 0, Blevins 0, Hall 8, Widman 0, Tribbett 8, Hansen 14, S.Pittman 2, Thiele 6.

NEWPORT Casey 2, Schulz 12, Almond 0, Sauer 36, Sherman 0, Frandrup 2, Vallieres 4, Carrara 8, Jacobsen 0, Lindburg 3, McDirmid 0.

Boys

Lakeside 49, Freeman 41

Billy Bender scored nine of his 11 points in the fourth quarter as the Eagles (15-8) held off a late Scotties (16-8) run to capture their first state berth in the school’s five-year history.

Lakeside led 35-26 after three quarters before Freeman went on an 8-2 run the first 3:31 of the final period to close the margin to 37-34.

That’s when Bender and the Eagles’ defense took over. Bender scored six straight points to push the lead back to eight with 1:21 left.

“We were able to adapt to their defense and I think our kids stepped up their defense,” Lakeside coach Kevin Mulligan said.

After Freeman went ahead 4-0, Lakeside scored the final 12 points of the first quarter and never relinquished the lead after that.

Ben Spiger led the Eagles with 12 points, eight in the first quarter. Nick Schuerman was high for the Scotties with 15 points. Freeman’s leading scorer during the season, Garen Friberg, added 13, nine in the fourth.

Lakeside 12 13 10 14 - 49

Freeman 4 12 10 15 - 41

LAKESIDE Nelson 4, Petticrew 9, Bender 11, Brakel 0, Day 4, Dasenbrock 0, Spiger 12, Miller 9.

FREEMAN Miller 0, An.Hill 8, Reed 5, Sheffield 0, Friberg 13, Schmidt 0, Schuerman 15.

, DataTimes