Curlew Keeps Nwc’s Number

Area boys

No Panorama League team was hotter than Northwest Christian entering the playoffs.

Curlew played the role of fire extinguisher Tuesday, cooling down NWC 65-36 in a league-tournament opener at Curlew. NWC (12-8) had won six straight, including conquests of division champions Republic and Selkirk.

The Cougars have been hard on NWC this year, having won the regular-season meeting 74-38.

Jeremy Groth hit four 3-pointers and added four steals, and Erich Prazak had eight rebounds for the Cougars (16-5). Curlew plays at Selkirk when league tourney games pick up again Saturday night at 7.

Jeremy Affeldt had 10 rebounds for the Crusaders. NWC next hosts Northport in a loser-out game.

Curlew 65, NWC 36

Northwest Christian 8 7 10 11 - 36 Curlew 15 12 19 19 - 65

NORTHWEST CHRISTIAN - Thomas 2, Mortlock 5, Verduin 0, McCabe 0, Smith 3, Affeldt 12, Wilson 0, Mason 0, A.Crouch 11, M.Crouch 0, Wolf 3.

CURLEW - C.Edwards 0, Cribby 6, G.Olsen 13, Groth 19, Nelson 0, Prazak 19, Brucklier 2, J.Miller 6, B.Miller 0, E.Edwards 0, J.B. Olsen 0, Strandberg 0.

Selkirk 64, Northport 51

Russell Lopes and Jimmy Huffine combined for 23 first-half points to lead the Rangers (16-4) over the visiting Mustangs (6-15) at Ione.

Huffine and teammate Tim Farris had eight rebounds apiece. Selkirk practiced only once during the week because of a flu outbreak. Northport, which hit 19 of 26 free throws, reached halftime with just four field goals.

Northport 7 13 8 23 - 51 Selkirk 20 20 11 13 - 64

NORTHPORT - Dufresne 2, Morrow 0, Carlson 2, Aaro.Day 14, Timmering 4, Godes 10, Aari.Day 2, Fredrickson 9, Reed 1, Bennetch 0, Ad.Day 7, Phaff 0.

SELKIRK - Escalanti 0, Davis 0, Larson 15, Kinney 5, Farris 6, Gere 2, Huffine 17, Lopes 13, Pyeatt 6, Reed 0, MacArthur 0.

Republic 69, St. George’s 47

Mark Rickard scored 28 and Jason Baldwin added 26 to guide the sixth-ranked Tigers (19-2) over the visiting Dragons (13-8).

Baldwin had seven assists, Rickard six blocked shots and the Tigers had a 55-25 rebounding advantage. Dan Kuney scored 22 for St. George’s, last year’s state runner-up.

In Saturday’s matchups, Republic will be at home against Springdale and St. George’s plays a loser-out game at Wellpinit.

St. George’s 6 11 10 20 - 47 Republic 11 21 19 18 - 69

ST. GEORGE’S - D.Dhillon 7, J.Dhillon 0, DePonty 3, Blume 2, Sadler 6, Spencer 6, Kuney 22, Thompson 1.

REPUBLIC - Dinkins 0, Dav.Hanks 2, Baldwin 26, Dan Hanks 3, Gliddon 0, Hadden 2, Rickard 28, Hargrave 0, Grimm 2, Kuchenmeister 6, Russell 0, Davenport 0.

Springdale 72, Wellpinit 55

Frank Lozano scored 22 on 9-for-10 shooting from the field and the Chargers (15-6) used an 18-3 scoring edge at the free-throw line to beat the visiting Redskins (11-10).

Wellpinit 7 17 11 20 - 55 Springdale 22 15 16 19 - 72

WELLPINIT - Lebret 4, Gould 0, M.Tonasket 6, T.Flett 0, D.Flett 6, Carter 0, Garrett 4, D.Tonasket 13, Andrew 2, Pakootas 20, Stearns 0.

SPRINGDALE - Gardner 1, Brisbois 5, Ralph 0, McCurdy 15, B.Peterson 20, Canfield 5, Lozano 22, Montgomery 0, Klemish 2, Farnsworth 2, Carlson 0, D.Peterson 0.

Bi-County League Tourney

V.Christian 75, Spr.-Harr. 55

Brian Sears scored 22 as the Panthers (14-7), beaten by Sprague-Harrington four days earlier, rebounded for a big win over the Falcons (7-13) in a loser-out game at Reardan.

Michael Spuler added seven points in the third quarter, when VC extended its lead to double figures. The Panthers, advancing to the double-elimination portion of the tourney, meet Ritzville (18-2) at 5:45 Friday.

Valley Christian 18 14 21 22 - 75 Sprague-Harr. 12 12 17 14 - 55

VALLEY CHRISTIAN - Dahl 2, Decker 6, Evans 6, Teterud 5, Spuler 18, Sears 22, Sandin 9, King 5.

SPRAGUE-HARRINGTON - Morton 1, Wagner 7, Carroll 12, Henry 8, Countryman 23, Thompson 4.

Wilbur-Creston 89, Odessa 60

Casey Kuchenbuch hit three of his team’s 10 3-pointers and scored 23 to guide the Wildcats (13-8) over the ousted Tigers (6-14).

W-C meets Liberty (12-8) at 7:30 Friday.

Odessa 14 14 21 11 - 60 Wilbur-Creston 21 20 22 26 - 89

ODESSA - Goetz 0, Kramer 15, Starkel 3, Hardung 0, Floch 0, Carlson Jr. 23, G.Schafer 0, Z.Schafer 0, Pitts 4, Grall 6, Praetorius 9.

WILBUR-CRESTON - Marchand 13, Leonard 3, Cairns 3, Villars 0, Grant 0, Bahr 0, Samuels 20, Kuchenbuch 23, Nelson 5, Katich 17, Desautel 4, Reister 2.

Whitman Co. League playoff

Rosalia 66, Colton 52

Ben Scheele scored seven of his 22 points in the fourth quarter, when the Spartans (6-13) made 11 free throws to hold off the Wildcats (6-15) at Endicott.

Rosalia earned the fourth seed to the league playoffs and an automatic berth to the District 9-B tournament. Colton will play Tekoa-Oakesdale (6-14) tonight at Endicott to determine the fifth and sixth berths to the league playoffs. No. 5 will open against Rosalia.

Colton 13 10 14 15 - 52 Rosalia 12 17 13 24 - 66

COLTON - T.Truong 0, Bre.Keller 0, B.Truong 0, Weber 0, Busch 8, Druffle 13, Bates 22, Hopwood 7, Meyer 2.

ROSALIA - Vangrimberger 12, Peterson 3, Slemp 0, Scheele 22, Schmidt 14, Bothman 3, Blank 9.

, DataTimes