Eagle Boys, Girls Like Their Chances For State

West Valley High’s boys and girls basketball teams were perfect last weekend, and that earned both the opportunity to do it all over again.

Actually, after reaching Friday night’s Excell Foods District 7 AA tournament finals at East Valley, they only need to be half as good.

West Valley’s boys play Colville following the girls’ 7:15 p.m. game against Cheney.

Winners qualify for the State AA tournament in Tacoma. Losers have a chance at the Frontier League’s second state berths.

While last weekend’s efforts were superb, they were hardly conclusive. Six other teams remain eligible to qualify for state.

“All four teams left are so good,” said Eagle coach Joe Feist of the boys tournament field. “Any will make excellent representatives. It’s a real up year for the Frontier.”

Right now, his team is playing as well as anyone.

They won a loser-out game against Riverside, 58-49. Then, in an outing in which everything went their way in the second half, the Eagles throttled Cheney, 74-55.

“We worked hard, caught some breaks and got away from them a bit,” said Feist.

The girls matchup pits the league champion Eagle girls against runnerup Cheney. The two teams divided their league games.

WV beat Clarkston 53-37 in its lone playoff game.

“It all comes down to one game with Cheney, which is what the girls wanted it to be,” said Eagle girls coach Mark Kuipers.

Eagle boys

West Valley and Cheney have played each other four times this year and alternated decisions. Included was Cheney’s triple overtime victory last Tuesday that left WV third for district seeding purposes.

It was one of five games in eight days for WV. Four came against the league’s top two teams. The Eagles traveled to Colville on the previous Friday, beat Cheney Saturday to share second and lost to the Blackhawks Tuesday.

Against Riverside on Friday, WV scored 13 straight second-quarter points to lead 29-17 and went on to victory.

WV trailed Cheney 20-9 early in the second quarter on Saturday. Still behind 32-25 with 7:07 remaining in the third quarter, during on a 23-3 run that settled the outcome.

Different players provided lifts each night.

Twice on Friday Ty Gregorak hit critical three-point baskets, the latter after Riverside closed to within 40-36 in the fourth quarter. On Saturday, it was sophomore Brad Groh who did the same against Cheney.

Josh Sweet, Jade Cardwell, who scored 31 points in the Tuesday marathon, and Vinnie Pecht all averaged in double figures.

But if there were one player to single out it was Austin Gerrells. Slashing to the basket, he led scoring with 16 against Riverside.

After being blanked in the first half against Cheney, he came back to score a dozen points.

“I was really happy for Austin,” said Feist. “He’s improved tremendously each game. The difference in the two halves shows how much he’s matured.”

Like Gerrells, West Valley is playing its best basketball of the year right now, said Feist. The 46-point swing between their first loss to Cheney in late January and Saturday’s win shows how much.

“The kds are playing with confidence whether ahead or behind and need to keep doing that,” he said. “We definitely have what it takes. If there’s a pot of gold at the end, so be it. If not we won’t apologize.”

Eagle girls

West Valley’s only loss of the Frontier League season came in its final game against Cheney.

“I don’t think it hurt us emotionally to lose to them,” said Kuipers. “If anything it reinforced the fact that Cheney makes us do things right or makes us pay.”

And while the Eagles weren’t particularly sharp in the district opener against Clarkston, Kuipers wasn’t concerned.

“Maybe it looked ugly, but that’s kind of the way this group is,” he said. “When they know they are better, they tend to want to win in the first quarter and do crazy things.”

Actually, WV did win the game in the first quarter, taking a 13-2 lead thanks to Keisha Sowers. They stretched it to 18 points by intermission thanks to Sherry Shollenberger. The pair finished with 17 and 15 points, respectively.

The Eagles have had a week to focus on this weekend and a chance to qualify for state for the first time since 1988.

“The toughest thing now is waiting,” said Kuipers. “At this point the girls are tired of practicing and I don’t blame them.”

Now, for both West Valley’s boys and girls teams, it comes down to winning one game this weekend.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo