Gsl Champions Taking The Bus CV Girls, Ferris Boys Take A Fall

District 8

Sometimes all you get for winning a share of a championship is a bus ticket out of town.

That’s what happened to the Central Valley girls and Ferris boys at the Greater Spokane League District 8 Tournament at the Arena Thursday night.

The CV girls fell to Mead 56-54 and the Ferris boys lost to rival Lewis and Clark 61-55 at the Arena Tuesday night.

Their counterparts, who also shared the league titles, helped ease the sting. The Ferris girls defeated LC 53-42 and the CV boys pulled away from Gonzaga Prep 54-46.

The games determined which teams travel and which ones stay home for the first round of the Eastern 4A regional tournament next Tuesday.

Thursday’s winners play tonight for the 1-2 seeds, which will play the Big Nine 3-4 seeds, and the losers play for the third and fourth seeds.

The first two games were the upsets, though only compared to seeding. CV’s girls had swept Mead though the Panthers finished just a game behind the Bears and LC’s boys had split with Ferris, but finished two games back.

All is not lost, however. The CV girls came out of district fourth last year and finished second at state.

Girls

Mead 56, Central Valley 53

The Panthers (17-5) tweaked their man-to-man defense against the Bears (18-3).

“We’re peaking at the right time and we made a couple of adjustments,” Mead coach Beth Wing said. “One was to cut down their outside shots, that hurt them.”

CV made four 3’s, but only one in the second half. And Rikki Jackson, who buried Mead with long bombs in the earlier wins, had just one first-half 3 on her way to 16 points.

The Bears gave up too many easy baskets when Mead beat the press and they gave the Panthers too many second shots.

Allie Bailey and Morgan Bennett carried the scoring load with 14 and 13 points, respectively. Another big key was Brandi Curry, who came off the bench to score seven points and grab 10 rebounds.

The Panthers opened a 46-40 lead early in the fourth quarter and were up 54-48 with a minute left.

CV’s Jenny Wilson and Marisa Liepman made two free throws apiece and after a Mead miss on the front end of a one-and-one, Wilson drove to the basket and was fouled with 5 seconds left.

Wilson made the first free throw and Curry rebounded the miss on the second. She was fouled and iced the game with 2 seconds to play with a pair of free throws.

Mead 56, CV 53

Mead 10 13 18 15 -56

Central Valley 12 14 14 13 -53

MEAD - Zelinski 2 0-0 5, Slater 1 0-0 2, Ferguson 2 3-3 8, Bailey 7 0-0 14, Bennett 5 3-7 13, Curry 2 3-4 7, Schuerman 3 1-2 7. Totals 22 10-1 56.

CENTRAL VALLEY - Phinney 2 0-0 4, Wilson 2 7-10 13, Grafos 1 0-0 3, Jackson 6 3-3 16, Shoquist 2 0-0 4, Liepman 1 5-7 7, Coyle 3 0-0 6. Totals 17 15-20 53. 3-point goals - Zelinski, Ferguson, Wilson 2, Grafos, Jackson. Total fouls - Mead 15, CV 14. Fouled out - Schurman, Liepman.

Ferris 53, Lewis and Clark 42

The Saxons (18-3), who beat the same team by 22 points a week earlier, broke out to a 9-0 lead but couldn’t shake the Tigers (10-12).

“They played really hard and they played focused,” Ferris coach Art Rojas said of the Tigers. “I thought the worst thing that happened to us was getting up 9-0. I’m just happy we won.”

Lewis and Clark 11 11 10 10 -42

Ferris 16 11 17 9 -53

LEWIS AND CLARK - Kauppila 1 1-2 3, Travis 2 0-0 4, Hamre 2 1-2 6, Wendle 1 0-0 3, Marquess 2 00 4, Thompson 1 0-2 2, Hansen 0 0-0 0, Glotfelty 5 0-0 10, Ford 4 2-2 10. Totals 18 4-8 42.

FERRIS - Pruett 4 2-2 12, Lytle 2 0-0 4, George 6 0-0 12, Morrisette 4 3-6 11, Brazzle 2 0-0 5, Martin 1 0-1 2, McCaffery 1 2-2 4, Benzel 0 0-0 0, Taylor 0 0-0 0, Lynn 0 0-0 0, Foster 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 7-11 53. 3-point goals - Hamre, Wendle, Pruett 2, George 3, Brazzle. Total fouls - LC 13, Ferris 13. Fouled out - none.

Boys

Lewis and Clark 61, Ferris 55

The Tigers (16-6), a week after losing to their rivals by 21, raced to a 23-13 lead after one quarter and repelled every charge the fourth-ranked Saxons (17-4) made.

“We had a big win on Tuesday (in loser-out game vs. Gonzaga Prep),” senior guard Luke Bowman said. “We came out relaxed, we didn’t have anything to lose. We came out and played our game and had fun.”

Bowman was a big part of it, scoring 14 of his career high 24 points in the first half, including eight in that big first quarter, off-setting 22 points from Ferris junior Chris Watts.

With the game tied at 51, Tyrees Donastorg snuck inside to rebound a teammate’s missed free throw and was fouled, putting LC up with two free throws with 2 minutes left. Donastorg tipped in another miss and Ferris never recovered. He finished with six of his 13 in the final 2 minutes.

Lewis and Clark 23 10 13 15 -61

Ferris 13 18 12 12 -55

LEWIS AND CLARK - Bowman 9 4-5 22, Defour 1 3-4 5, Hook 3 1-2 8, Avery 0 0-0 0, Donastorg 4 3-4 13, Floyd 1 0-0 3, Kuhlman 0 0-0 0, Marshall 0 0-0 0, Etter 0 0-0 0, Spurgetis 0 0-0 0, Luce 5 0-1 10. Totals 23 11-16 61.

FERRIS - Biggerstaff 1 0-0 3, Servine 3 1-2 8, Atkins 2 1-2 5, Sleeth 0 0-0 0, Gill 0 0-0 0, Watts 9 3-3 22, Hodl 3 4-5 11, Mietus 1 1-2 3, Williams 1 1- 2 3. Totals 20 11-16 55. 3-point goals - Hook, Donastorg 2, Floyd, Biggerstaff, Servine, Watts, Hodl. Total fouls - LC 16, Ferris 21. Fouled out - Defour.

Central Valley 54, G-Prep 46

The Bears (17-4), who won the earlier two games by an average of 15 points, never got comfortable against the Bullpups (9-13) until Ryan Smith took over.

Smith scored 10 of his 15 points in the third quarter, six in a 10-2 run that put the Bears up 35-27. Still, the Bullpups hung around until Smith engineered a 7-0 run in the fourth.

“Lately I’ve been more aggressive pushing the ball up, attacking the basket rather than setting outside and shooting,” said Smith, who also had six assists. “That’s my game.”

Gonzaga Prep 10 9 14 13 -46

Central Valley 9 12 16 17 -54

GONZAGA PREP - Johnson 4 1-1 10, McIntyre 0 0-0 0, Thielman 2 0-0 4, Maher 2 0-0 4, Dixson 3 2-2 10, Bacon 2 1-1 5, Hartnett 4 4-4 12, Yarbrough 0 1-2 1. Totals 17 9-10 46.

CENTRAL VALLEY - Eigenhuis 0 0-0 0, Priebe 3 4-4 11, Smith 6 1-3 15, Hebden 3 0-0 8, Hinckley 3 0-0 6, Libey 0 0-0 0, DePew 0 0-0 0, McFarlane 1 0-0 2, Perkes 4 4-6 12. Totals 20 9-13 54.

3-point goals - Johnson, Dixson 2, Priebe, Smith 2, Hebden 2. Total fouls - GP 13, CV 12. Fouled out - none.

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