Riverside Slips Into Second Place With Win Over Cheney

With Riverside’s girls basketball team trailing Cheney by 16 points and having called a timeout, Abbey Wood told coach Chris Wren, “We can still win this.”

Sure, thought Wren to himself. He couldn’t say anything to his player, other than, “OK.”

But when Wood hit a 3-point basket at the buzzer for a 40-39 victory over the visiting Blackhawks, it was more than OK.

Riverside had slipped past Cheney into second place in the Frontier League.

“It has to go down as one of the strangest games I’ve coached in,” said Wren of his 12-year career. “For three quarters they totally dominated us and for one quarter we dominated them. It’s ironic that a team could dominate and lose. We only led once in the game.”

In this instance, 25 percent was good enough.

Cheney had a 38-20 advantage with about seven minutes to go, said Wren. “We couldn’t do anything offensively. Then they had shots that wouldn’t go in and we hit some shots.”

Riverside pared the lead to 10 points and the girls figured they had a chance. They wound up outscoring Cheney 20-3 in the final quarter and Wood finished with 20 points.

Since struggling early in the season, Riverside has won 8 of its last 10 basketball games for a 10-5 record, 6-1 in league.

Injuries have sidelined most of the lineup at varying times during the year. Kiesha Shorts hasn’t played for a month with a hamstring pull.

Bernice Stime and Tiffany McMurphy are the only players who haven’t missed a start.

The advantage, said Wren, is that younger athletes have gotten plenty of court time.

“When we get healthy I really like our chances,” he said.

Defense has been Riverside’s constant, although the team hasn’t scored a lot of points.

“I think we have pretty good athletes,” said Wren. “I don’t know how great of shooters they are.”

Before Christmas, Riverside turned the ball over 22 times a game and barely shot 30 percent from the floor.

Since then the turnovers have gone down and shooting has improved.

“Abbey has been in double figures five consecutive games,” said Wren.

McMurphy and Nikki Snyder have also picked up scoring to take the pressure off Stime.

This weekend Riverside plays at Colville and hosts East Valley. Next weekend the Rams are at Cheney and entertain league leader West Valley back-to-back. WV has given Riverside its only league loss.

“For league I would prefer those games were split,” said Wren. “But being so close to tournament it is good. It will give us a barometer of what we have to do.”

Titles in sight for Lakeside

Lakeside’s boys and girls basketball teams can approach Northeast A League championships this weekend.

Both have a game lead with three league contests remaining.

On Friday the girls play nearest challenger Newport on the road and Saturday the boys play at third-place Freeman as part of a two-game weekend.

Victories in both by each team would give the girls their third straight NEA championship and ensure a tie for the title by the boys.

Last weekend the Eagle boys won twice over Colfax and Deer Park by an average of 38 points per game.

Bill Bender, George Petticrew and Mike Dasenbrock between them averaged 15.5 points per outing. Wins improved their record to 10-1 in league and 13-4 overall.

Lakeside’s girls swept third-place Colfax, 50-36 and trounced Deer Park 64-14, Brianne Jolley with a 34-point weekend.

The Eagles are unbeaten in 11 league games and 16-1 overall.

Panther girls fit to be tied

Mead girls basketball player Jen Bennett led the Panthers to the mountain.

She couldn’t get them over the top.

Bennett missed two free throws after time expired against Central Valley Tuesday night and Mead lost its first Greater Spokane League game, 56-55 to Central Valley.

But without Bennett, the Panthers wouldn’t have been as close.

Despite being in foul trouble, the 6-foot-3 Bennett brought the Panthers back from an 11-point halftime deficit with a team high 16 points. She scored her team’s final four points for a 55-54 lead with 35 seconds remaining.

Behind by a point with 17 seconds left, Mead worked the ball to Bennett at the free throw line and she was fouled at the buzzer.

Loss left the two teams tied for the league lead, two games ahead of Gonzaga Prep with four games remaining in the season.

The Bullpups, 8-3, beat Shadle Park 64-53.

Third place in the boys league remained up for grabs following Tuesday night’s games.

The Panthers moved past Central Valley and remained one-half game behind University with its 48-43 victory over the Bears.

League co-leader Shadle Park defeated Gonzaga Prep 63-46.

The Bullpups are a game ahead of Rogers for the league’s sixth playoff berth.

, DataTimes