Valley Christian And Ritzville Roll

District 7-B

Never had a District 7-B championship night been so lopsided.

But then, few teams as talented as Valley Christian’s boys and Ritzville’s girls come down the pike.

Sparked by their defenses, VC and Ritzville won championships Saturday at Spokane Falls Community College, in both cases by the second-widest margin in history.

VC (22-2) won its 10th consecutive game and first district title, thumping St. George’s 70-36 with its patented balanced offense and in-your-face defense. Only Reardan’s 53-point, district-title win over Inchelium in 1966 was by a bigger gap during the tourney’s 52-year run.

Ritzville (25-0), riding a 35-game winning streak, defended its district title with a 62-39 romp over Wilbur-Creston. The 23-point difference is topped only by Ritzville’s 24-point win over Curlew in ‘79.

As consolation, both St. George’s and W-C will be No. 1 seeds during today’s 10 a.m. State B drawing at the Ridpath Hotel. The state’s two largest districts, 7 and 1-2-3, provide the seventh and eighth No. 1 seeds with their tourney runners-up.

Val.Christian 70, St. George’s 36

The Panthers began a 14-0 run early in the game and added a 14-2 run to close out the first half.

VC took away the Dragons’ 3-point game and anything inside. St. George’s (19-8) didn’t score in the paint until halfway through the second quarter.

Point guard Dan Dhillon picked up his third foul late in the first quarter, further damaging the Dragons’ offense.

The Panthers shot 52 percent from the field, topped by reserve Brent Decker’s 6-for-8 effort.

“I was hoping this would happen,” said VC coach Steve Altmeyer. “We didn’t want to underestimate them, but we felt we were a better team.”

VC took off after losing to Odessa Jan. 17, a game in which the Panthers didn’t score in the fourth quarter.

“We’re a good team but it’s a new tournament coming up,” Altmeyer said. “I don’t know where people will place us and I really don’t care.”

The Dragons played in their second final. They won district in ‘96, the year they placed second at state.

Val.Christian 12 20 19 19 - 70

St. George’s 3 6 10 17 - 36

VALLEY CHRISTIAN - Brecto 2, Troyer 6, J.Decker 10, Smith 4, Spuler 10, Meyer 2, Sears 4, B.Decker 13, Evans 9, Sandin 10, Lacy 0.

ST. GEORGE’S - Blume 2, Longenotti 0, Dhillon 4, Taylor 0, Moser 8, Davis 0, Helms 1, DePonty 3, Spencer 7, Yi 0, Witherspoon 7, Thomsen 4.

Odessa 56, Curlew 54

George Schafer hit two free throws with 1.1 seconds left as the Tigers (18-9) stormed back from a 14-point halftime deficit to defeat the Cougars (21-6) in the game for the third and fourth state seeds.

Ryan Floch hit 7 of 10 from the floor and Schafer was 3 for 3 on 3-pointers for Odessa, which shot 51 percent from the floor. Curlew’s top scorers, Gunner Olsen, Jeremy Groth and Erich Prazak, were a combined 14 of 48 (29 percent).

Olsen had a game-high seven steals and four blocked shots while Prazak had nine rebounds and five assists.

Curlew 15 19 7 13 - 54

Odessa 13 7 12 24 - 56

CURLEW - G.Olsen 13, Groth 17, Edwards 6, J.B.Olsen 4, Prazak 6, Cribby 8.

ODESSA - Kramer 11, G.Schafer 11, Dart 5, Floch 14, Hardung 0, Jeske 11, Pitts 4, Z.Schafer 0, Walter 0, Praetorius 0.

Girls

Ritzville 62, Wil.-Crest. 39

A rematch of last year’s district- and state-title games went the same way, but in much more emphatic fashion.

The Broncos opened the second quarter with a 16-0 run to pull ahead 28-3 and humbled the Wildcats (17-7). W-C entered 0-3 against Ritzville this year, but each loss was by 10 points or less.

“It would be pretty hard to put together a better first half than we did tonight, both on offense and defense,” said Ritzville coach Howard Manke.

Ritzville is 8-0 in district finals.

Broncos senior Shannon Russel hit a season-high five 3-pointers on her way to 21 points, putting her 15 shy of 1,000 for her career. Russel also dogged W-C scoring leader Alyssa Erickson, holding her to two free throws in the first half.

“We’ve played them nine times in the last two years, so I’m kind of used to it,” Russel said of the defensive assignment.

Ritzville guard Erin Weber scored 12 in the first half, twice her per-game average.

Wil.-Creston 3 9 18 9 - 39

Ritzville 12 24 13 13 - 62

WILBUR-CRESTON - Desautel 0, Sherwood 0, Harris 0, Mann 0, Deahl 4, Dreger 4, Erickson 14, Arden 13, Aubertin 0, Kemp 0, Nelson 4, Snavely 0.

RITZVILLE - Wellsandt 2, Warriner 0, Sackmann 5, Weber 14, Horpedahl 0, Fitch 4, Gibler 0, Russel 21, Yerxa 16, Alspach 0, Janzen 0, Zicha 0.

St. George’s 53, Sprague-Harr. 51

Wenchi Liu scored 22, including a short push shot over Amanda Scoles in the final seconds, as the Dragons (21-5) edged the Falcons (17-10) in the game for third and fourth seeds to state.

Liu hit 9 of 16 from the floor, including two 3-pointers, and added nine assists and four steals. Kristy Engles and Scoles combined for 16 rebounds and 10-of-12 shooting from the field for S-H, heading to state for the first time.

Sprague-Harr. 9 19 8 15 - 51

St. George’s 11 15 17 10 - 53

SPRAGUE-HARRINGTON - Maurer 0, Whipple 6, Ernst 0, Walters 11, Hatten 8, Engles 12, Morse 2, Scoles 12.

ST. GEORGE’S - Liu 22, Clarke 2, Philopant 2, Stothart 0, Henley 11, Blume 4, Nielsen 2, DePonty 2, Routh-Corker 6, Kutterhuf 0, Moore 2.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo