Chief Leschi Survives Warriors Lose Comfortable Lead, But Stave Off Odessa’s Comeback

For first-timers, the Chief Leschi Warriors are leaving a lasting impression.

But the Warriors, run-and-gun reps from the Chinook A-B League, nearly ran themselves out of the State B basketball tournament Wednesday morning in the Arena. After building a 16-point lead, they allowed the Odessa Tigers to climb back into the first-round game before they pulled out a 50-45 victory.

For a while, it looked as though the Warriors (23-3) were en route to a rout.

They carried a 28-17 lead into the half and built the margin to as much as 35-19, when Doug Johns scored on a jump shot with 5:21 left in the third quarter.

Johns led all scorers with 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting.

But then the B tourney newcomers from Puyallup got lazy. And the District 7 champion Tigers (18-10) made a game of it.

“Our kids got a little lackadaisical out there,” said Chief Leschi’s third-year coach Michael Bradley. “We got that 16-point lead and we kinda cruised.”

Cruised, but hardly in control.

The Warriors kept their advantage between 12 and 14 points for the first 4 minutes of the third quarter. They saw it shrink to single digits at 43-35 when Odessa’s 6-foot-5 post Ryan Floch put back his own miss with 6:24 remaining in the game. Floch, usually a 14.8 points-per-game shooter, was held to six but pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds.

During several minutes of the third quarter, Bradley was resting starters Borin Lach and Michael Richardson. That, too, helped Odessa (18-10) come back.

Lach, a talented shooting guard who struggled with his control, finished with nine points on 3-of-13 shooting and seven assists. Richardson, a Muggsy Boguesgone-B guard, added seven points.

“They took advantage of my subbing,” Bradley said.

The Tigers also had the upper hand against the Warriors’ top shooter, Lamont Trent. The 6-3 forward came in averaging 18.3 points per game. But Odessa double- and triple-teamed him, resulting in a eight-point, 10-rebound finish.

“This game was the key for us. We’ve never been over here and winning this first one took a lot of pressure off us,” said Bradley, whose team won the District 1-2-3 and is riding a 10-game winning streak.

Odessa cut Chief Leschi’s lead to 43-39 with 5:04 left in the game when Scott Kramer hit back-to-back baskets. After Lach answered with a jumper, Odessa found itself trailing by four once again, 45-41, when Michael Jeske and Kramer went 2-on-1 against Lach and finished the play with an easy Jeske layup.

That’s as close as the Tigers got.

“We’ve had several good comebacks all year,” said Odessa coach Myron Kramer, who’s in his first year back after a 20-year hiatus. “We’ve dug ourselves a hole with the turnover thing. Then, when we start a comeback, the kids forget about the turnovers and get into playing basketball.”

Not so easy at state.

In the final 3:11, Odessa lost the ball on a traveling call and, in the closing seconds, on a Richardson steal.

Odessa committed 17 turnovers and had the ball stolen five times. Chief Leschi had 12 turnovers, three on steals.

The Tigers’s last hope of a successful comeback came when Jeske laid one in to make the score 48-43 with 1:23 left. Trent quickly answered with a bucket to push the lead back to seven points with 1 minute remaining.

“We have the confidence that we can pull away against anyone we want.,” Richardson said. “We kinda got lazy out there. We expected them to roll over, but not many teams roll over when you get this far.”

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