Wildcats Strike Again

Girls B basketball

Alyssa Erickson didn’t think the Wilbur-Creston girls basketball team received enough credit after defeating defending State B champion Ritzville last month to break the Broncos’ 52-game winning streak.

But she expects that to change after Thursday night’s 39-32 victory over Ritzville in a District 7 B winner-to-state game at Spokane Falls Community College.

“I think people think we’re for real,” Erickson said after scoring 17 points to put her at 1,312 for her career. “They know now it’s not a fluke.”

The Wildcats move into Saturday’s 7 p.m. district championship game against St. George’s, a 49-31 winner over Republic at SFCC.

Ritzville, which has lost only twice in 61 games, plays Sprague-Harrington at 1:30 p.m. today in a loser-out game. Republic meets Selkirk at 6 p.m. in another loser-out game. The two winners go for the district’s third state berth at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

Sprague-Harrington defeated Valley Christian 50-35 and Selkirk eliminated Northport 65-53 in loser-out play Wednesday at Spokane Community College.

Wilbur-Creston 39, Ritzville 32

The Wildcats still had their loss to Sprague-Harrington from last week’s league tiebreaker on their minds, coach Denise Wilkie said.

Not anymore.

“We had to redeem ourselves,” she said.

W-C’s goal was to get 6-foot Ritzville senior post Megan Yerxa into foul trouble. The plan worked. She finished with four fouls and only four points and three rebounds. Yerxa was hindered by a sprained right ankle she suffered in the second quarter. She injured the same ankle a couple weeks ago.

“We have no excuses,” Broncos coach Howard Manke said. “Wilbur-Creston was more physical and got some key offensive rebounds in the second half. That was the difference.”

Erickson grabbed five of her 10 boards on the offensive end as her team held a 34-18 rebounding advantage. She also had two steals and a blocked shot. Erickson often took the ball the length of the floor and had three chances at three-point plays.

The Wildcats’ defense forced the Broncos into five turnovers in the final 2 minutes, 30 seconds.

Wilbur-Creston 6 15 5 13 - 39

Ritzville 6 14 7 5 - 32

Wilbur-Creston (21-4) - Matt 2, Sherwood 8, Dreger 6, Erickson 17, Snavely 4, Kemp 2.

Ritzville (21-2) - Wellsandt 4, Sackmann 7, Benzel 0, Fitch 17, Yerxa 4, Alspach 0.

St. George’s 49, Republic 31

St. George’s isn’t used to not having Wenchi Liu on the court. The 5-foot-4 junior has started every game for three years.

So with Liu on the bench for a quarter and a half with foul trouble, the Dragons struggled. But when Liu returned after halftime, things changed.

St. George’s, which has won 22 straight and hasn’t lost to a B school, shot only 23 percent in the first half but went 15 for 33 in the second to finish 37 percent.

Liu had a game-high 13 points and added six steals and four assists.

Most of her dishes were to Alyssa Henley, who scored 12 points.

“We were really excited to play this game,” Liu said. “We were all fired up. We had some problems but worked through them.”

Republic 7 10 12 20 - 49

St. George’s 5 7 8 11 - 31

Republic (19-7) - Hover 8, Osgood 0, Sattler 2, E. Ciais 0, C. Merrit 0, Koontz 6, Campobasso 2, A. Merrit 2, Wilson 7, Giddings 4.

St. George’s (23-2) - Liu 13, Clarke 0, Philopant 2, Henley 12, Blume 6, R. Kutteruf 0, DePonty 11, Nielsen 0, Witherspoon 2, Luber 2, M. Kutteruf 1, Longinotti 0.

Selkirk 65, Northport 53 (OT)

Rachea Allert made 11 of 15 free throws and Christina Fairbairn had eight rebounds as the Rangers eliminated the Mustangs in overtime at Spokane Community College.

Fairbairn added 6-of-11 shooting from the field. Selkirk finished 23 of 34 from the line.

Karen Sauvola scored 25, hitting 9 of 15 from the floor and 7 of 9 from the line, and Candace Young hit 7 of 15 field goals and had eight rebounds for Northport. Sauvola finished her career with 1,587 points and Young with 1,088.

Selkirk 15 19 7 10 14 - 65

Northport 14 12 11 14 2 - 53

Selkirk (17-9) - Smith 0, Scherf 9, D. Haney 1, Schmidt 7, Fairbairn 16, M. Haney 1, Kinney 0, Beatty 5, Allert 19, Emrick 5, Smith 3.

Northport (19-6) - Burke 0, Wilson 0, Ashurst 1, Simpson 0, Day 6, Goodwin 0, Sauvola 25, Jimenez 0, Young 17, Brunette 4.

Spr-Harrington 50, Valley Chr. 35

Amanda Scoles scored 23, hitting 10 of 20 from the field, and the Falcons eliminated the Panthers at SCC.

Mandi Walters added eight rebounds and Stacey Whipple had six assists for the Falcons.

Carli Smith of the Panthers hit 5 of 9 from the field and had 12 rebounds. VC’s Kristen Lanker added four assists. The Panthers have no seniors on their roster.

Valley Christian 4 8 8 15 - 35

Sprague-Harr. 6 11 16 17 - 50

Valley Christian (13-12) - Teterud 2, Altmeyer 2, Smith 12, Rosholt 2, Arnhold 0, Lanker 8, Cupp 7, Swenson 0, Peterson 0, Evans 2.

Sprague-Harrington (18-6) - Sewall 2, Whipple 3, Ernst 0, Maurer 6, Hatten 0, Walters 13, Morse 3, Scoles 23.