Big Game For Ev, Wv On Friday

There is a new element to the Golden Throne spirit game this year - the real winner won’t necessarily be the school perched on top of the stool.

For the first time since East Valley and West Valley joined the fad of spirit games between rivals, the game means more than the trophy - at least on the boys side.

EV leads WV by one game in the Border League. The winner of Friday’s 8 p.m. contest (the girls start at 6:15) at East Valley has the advantage down the stretch for the top seed into the district tournament.

“It’s a big one. It will be fun, I know that,” said WV first-year head coach Jamie Nilles, who has participated in about a half-dozen Golden Throne games as an assistant coach. “It’s midway through the season so it’s not life or death, but you can learn something from it.”

The Eagles have lost three straight games after 10 straight wins, to go from a game up on East Valley to a game behind.

“This one is for first place,” Nilles said. “They’re a very talented team, they’ve been playing well all year. In the past, West Valley has had a hold on them. This year it could go either way, to be very honest.”

East Valley coach Drew Vanderpool has coached in rivalry games but not in spirit games.

“We’ve got signs, we’re used to calling plays verbally,” he said. “We’re bringing in crowd noise during scrimmages.”

Unaccustomed to first place, the Knights are getting serious with their new-found success, but they’re not overlooking the Eagles, despite the skid.

“West Valley hit a stretch where things didn’t go their way,” Vanderpool said. “Those were road games against hot teams. They’re an excellent ball club, they’re loaded. I think it’s going to be a really good game.”

The key, he said, is defense.

“They have so many weapons,” Vanderpool said. “They can score outside and inside, they run and press. It’s a matter of how we step up on defense.”

Nilles expects the Eagles to be ready.

“We’ve had some tough goes,” he said. “The first two losses, we played good basketball. In the Lake City game, they got on us early and we didn’t respond well.”

Nilles also expects defense to be the key.

“Their size at each position is to their advantage,” he said. “Everybody on the floor can score, I don’t know if you see that in a lot of high school team. Usually you have to shut down two or three guys. (Andrew) Burgess is their main score, he’ll get the most shots up, but overall they can score in every position.”

Hard lesson

The Central Valley girls basketball team knows it can score. Now it knows it has to.

Only twice have the Bears been held under 50 points and that has come in the two games they lost.

The first came when they were ranked first. CV dropped a 50-42 decision at Mead the day the first Associated Press power poll came out and the then-undefeated Bears were No. 1.

The second game was Tuesday, when Ferris rallied for a 48-44 win, aided by the usually sharp-shooting Bears struggling to get a shot to drop from inside or outside.

“We were a little tentative,” CV coach Dale Poffenroth said. “We haven’t been in that situation. (Ferris) has been there all year.”

The loss came hot on the heels of a pair of 77-point outbursts that produced 40-point wins.

“It’s a better learning experience to lose this game by four than to win those two by 40,” Poffenroth said.

The Bears get a chance to redeem themselves quickly as Mead visits Friday night. A win puts CV back into a tie for first with the Panthers, and with Prep if the Bullpups beat U-Hi. That’s not a given, considering the first meeting was 50-49 for Prep.

Thanks to a quirk in the schedule, CV and Prep haven’t played yet, but that is about to change. Prep visits CV next Thursday. The second game is Feb. 12.

EV takes third

J.J. Honorof blamed himself for East Valley’s loss to Lake Stevens at the Washington Dream Duals wrestling meet Saturday at Mead High School.

The Knights dropped their first six matches then won seven in a row to put themselves in a position for the upset heading into the final match at 275 pounds.

Honorof, a senior who was wrestling up from his usual 215 class, took an 8-0 lead only to get pinned by Nick Mumford. Lake Stevens won 36-28.

“We got the job done the way we were supposed to except for me,” he said. “Other than that, I thought everyone did a good job wrestling up a weight.”

The loss was hard for Honorof. But he made up for it a couple hours later.

In the match for third and fourth place of the 3A classification against defending state champion Moses Lake, Honorof again was in a position to win it or lose it for his team.

EV led 31-27 heading into his match. Honorof pinned the Chiefs’ Jason White in 3 minutes, 13 seconds and the Knights won 37-27. Moses Lake had beaten EV in the last match of the Dream Duals a year ago when it was held at Auburn.

“That was pretty nice (for J.J.) after what happened in the last one,” EV coach Craig Hanson said.

Honorof agreed.

“I was kind of intimidated at first,” he said, noting the finish of the previous match had something to do with that. “But once I got a feel for his weight and strength I got a little more confident and just had to get it done.”

Measuring point for U-Hi

Losing to Wenatchee in the 4A title match was a “little bit of a blow” for University’s wrestling team, said senior 168-pounder Reggie Lee.

The Titans fell behind early when they were pinned at the 101- and 108-pound weight classes and ended up losing 46-21.

“Our team just doesn’t match up well with Wenatchee,” said coach Don Owen.

Lee figures it was a good measuring point.

“It’s something big but not our final goal,” he said of the meet. “That comes in late February.”