Dominant Chief Leschi Boys Prove First Time’s The Charm

Chief Leschi had no tournament history, but that didn’t stop the Warriors from completing their historic march Saturday night.

A team with no discernable weaknesses, Leschi bolted to a 13-2 lead and pulled away from Valley Christian 70-51 in the title game of the 56th boys State B basketball tournament.

The Arena crowd was never treated to the chills of championship night, as the Warriors (25-3) always led by at least eight points after all-tournament guard Borin Lach sank two free throws with 5 minutes left in the second quarter.

“We just wanted to come out and prove that we were the team to beat,” said Lach, who won his matchup with fellow all-tournament guard Michael Spuler by outscoring the Panthers senior 15-6.

The Warriors, of Puyallup, won the gold ball in their first state appearance, the first team to do so since Grand Coulee in 1960.

VC also played in its first state tourney and also finished 25-3.

Tourney watchers wondered if the Panthers felt the wear and tear of playing consecutive games against Darrington, DeSales and Curlew, in arguably the tougher bracket. But VC coach Steve Altmeyer didn’t see that as a factor.

“What hurt me more than anything was that we had so many people here who had never seen us play,” said the second-year Panthers coach. “I wish we could have played like the team we’d been all season.”

The game, matching private schools with 13-game winning streaks, lost its intrigue when the Warriors began a 9-0 streak midway through the first quarter.

The Panthers missed their first nine field-goal attempts and finished the first half 7 of 31.

The majority of Leschi’s scoring came from junior post Lamont Trent, who scored eight of his 17 in the fourth quarter, and sophomore guard Brandon Brown, who came off the bench for 18 on 7-of-12 shooting from the floor.

VC couldn’t offset the Warriors’ offensive penetration, often resorting to fouls in exchange for easy baskets. The Panthers sent Leschi to the free-throw line 30 times, 22 in the first half, and had five players finish with three or more fouls.

“My kids are so athletic that I try not to stifle them,” said Warriors coach Michael Bradley. “I just tell them to go out and play like they want to play.”

The Panthers’ last gasp came late in the third quarter, when Jeremy Decker scored five and Spuler four to key an 11-2 run that cut into Leschi’s 44-23 lead. The Warriors responded with an 11-4 run, punctuated by Doug Johns’ third 3-pointer of the quarter.

Lach added 11 rebounds, while teammate Michael Richardson had nine assists. Eric Smith had 11 rebounds, Brian Sears made 6 of 8 free throws, and Brent Decker hit three 3-pointers for the Panthers.

“My one hope was that both teams would come out and play their best,” said Altmeyer, who won a State B title at Willapa Valley in 1981. “Chief Leschi did, and we didn’t.”

Leschi became the first team from the oft-maligned Tri-District to win a title since the 1960s, when Darrington won a pair. The Tri-District placed three teams at the tourney, one less than VC’s District 7.

Tourney attendance hit 46,776 with Saturday’s crowd of 9,963.

, DataTimes