Sje Boys End State Drought By Cooling Off Waitsburg

St. John Endicott brought in basketball coach Darrell Miller three years ago to build some stability.

A return to the boys State B tournament should be considered stable enough.

Senior forward Ryan Stolmeier, who has seen the highs and lows at SJE, hit two baskets for a 38-32 lead in the fourth quarter and the Eagles held off Waitsburg 48-38 in Friday’s District 9-B tournament championship game at Washington State University’s Beasley Coliseum.

SJE (20-5) qualified for its sixth boys state tourney but the first in eight years. It was a long gap for the towns with 30 state berths between them before they consolidated.

“My sophomore year coach said this was the team to build upon,” said the 6-4 Stolmeier. “We were laying a foundation.”

Waitsburg (17-7), which had won 16 consecutive games, must defeat DeSales at 8:30 tonight to earn the district’s final state berth.

Sophomores Karl Schuerman and Josh Hames scored four points apiece as SJE put together an 11-0 second-quarter run for a 23-15 lead. The Cardinals stayed close until Stolmeier, who had missed nearly 3 minutes because of four fouls, came back in to score baskets 40 seconds apart.

SJE completed its five-goal plan that began with defeating Garfield-Palouse and Tekoa-Oakesdale in three out of four Whitman County League games and ended with a state trip.

“Even in the losses we’ve had, the kids came to compete,” said Miller, who guided Willapa Valley to state before returning to his Eastern Washington roots. “Every time these kids have been presented a challenge, they’ve addressed it.”

Waitsburg played without starting guard Ryan Leid, who rolled his ankle seconds into the game. His absence showed, as the Cardinals had more than 20 turnovers.

SJE 48, Waitsburg 38

St. John-Endicott 12 18 4 14 - 48

Waitsburg 13 12 4 9 - 38

ST. JOHN-ENDICOTT - Riehle 0, Shawgo 0, Miller 0, Bafus 15, Strader 0, Stoner 3, Hames 4, Scheuerman 12, Thompson 0, Siler 4, Stolmeier 10.

WAITSBURG - Adams 0, McKinley 0, Archer 1, Leid 0, Scott 7, Pearson 10, Wyatt 8, Mason 0, Gagnon 0, McCaw 10, Ruzicka 2.

DeSales 75, Garfield-Palouse 62

Scott Zea, a 6-foot-6 junior post, scored 10 of his 23 in the second quarter and finished 7 of 7 from the line as the Irish (17-5) eliminated the Vikings (19-7).

Brian Lindgren added three 3-pointers and five steals, and Joe Levens six assists for the Walla Walla private school, which is one game away from its first state berth.

Gar-Pal senior Brad Bischoff scored 20 of his 29 in the second half to finish his career with 1,010 points.

Garfield-Palouse 17 13 17 15 - 62

DeSales 14 14 23 24 - 75

GARFIELD-PALOUSE - Kimble 0, Tharp 0, Flansburg 12, Bischoff 29, Coles 7, Demand 0, Johnson 0, Cronk 0, Fox 7, Power 7.

DeSALES - Lindgren 19, Levens 10, Heinzman 2, Stanley 10, T.Baffney 0, Wolfram 0, Barry 0, Zea 23, C.Baffney 11.

Girls

Waitsburg 60, LaCrosse-Washtucna 44

No girls team from Waitsburg had advanced to the state tournament. No girls team from L-W had advanced to state.

At least for one more day, those statements hold true for L-W alone.

Kynde Kiefel and Anne Bickelhaupt held tough despite foul trouble, combining for 31 and 11 rebounds as 10th-ranked Waitsburg (18-6) pushed the Tigercats (16-9) into tonight’s 6:30 winner-to-state, loser-out game against T-O.

Kiefel, at 6-foot, scored 11 in the first half and guided a 13-1 run after Bickelhaupt picked up her second foul early in the game. Then Kiefel sat with four fouls and the 6-2 Bickelhaupt scored three consecutive baskets to start a 9-0 run for a 49-37 lead in the fourth quarter.

Quick guard Wendy Jones and toughrebounding forward Kelly McCaw added to Waitsburg’s punch.

“I feel lucky because we’ve been gifted with a well-rounded team, inside and outside,” said four-year starter Kiefel.

The Tigercats, who start two sophomores, two juniors and one senior, were outrebounded 34-23 and couldn’t offset the Cardinals’ 55-percent shooting.

Kelly Larsen had eight rebounds and Rochelle Schneider five assists and four steals for L-W, which is 2-1 against T-O heading into tonight.

“When we started the year, if you had told me we would have one shot to go to state I would have been happy,” said L-W coach Nathan Cronrath. “Now we’ll have a second.”

Lacrosse-Washtucna 10 11 12 11 - 44

Waitsburg 15 10 15 20 - 60

LaCROSSE-WASHTUCNA - Bay 6, S. Wigen 0, Cronrath 12, Kinch 2, N.Schneider 4, J. Wigen 6, Mays 0, R.Schneider 4, Larsen 8, Baumann 2.

WAITSBURG - Jones 4, Hulce 10, E.Abbey 0, McCaw 13, Seney 0, Bickelhaupt 13, Kiefel 18, Conover 2.

T-O 44, DeSales 35

Junior forward Heather Cox scored 12 points in the first quarter, capped by a pair of 3-pointers, and added 11 rebounds as the Nighthawks (23-3) ousted the Irish (19-5).

Senior Miranda Brown added 8 points in the first quarter and seven rebounds for T-O, which placed 5th at state last year.

DeSales senior twins Erin and Amber Hellberg combined for 29 points, 12 rebounds and 8-of-10 shooting from the line.

Tekoa-Oakesdale 22 12 3 7 - 44

DeSales 10 13 7 5 - 35

TEKOA-OAKESDALE - K.Driscoll 0, S.Driscoll 4, Smart 0, Brown 13, Hay 3, Graffis 4, Bruce 2, Cox 18.

DeSALES - Dutton 4, Lindgren 0, E.Hellberg 16, Postlewait 0, A.Hellberg 13, Balakier 2, Watko 0, Lilwall 0.

, DataTimes