Frontier Entries Lose 3A Openers

3A Eastern Regional

When introductions were made before East Valley’s girls basketball game against West Valley of Yakima, the Knights’ Sarah Shogren walked out in street clothes, her face visibly swollen with mumps.

The scene spoke volumes about the Frontier League’s Black Friday during the 3A Eastern Regional tournament.

All three Spokane-area teams were relegated to this afternoon’s consolation games by Mid-Valley counterparts.

In boys action, West Valley fell prey to Hanford, 73-58. Cheney’s girls were beaten 48-39 by Eastmont, and East Valley, minus its second-leading scorer, Shogren, was overrun by West Valley-Yakima, 70-22.

The Knights and Blackhawks play at 3:45 p.m. today, the winner advancing to state. In the 2 p.m. opener, the Eagles play Moses Lake, which lost 53-46 to Ellensburg, for a state trip.

Hanford 73, WV-Spokane 58

The Eagles dug themselves a hole prior to halftime and dug it even deeper to begin the third quarter.

They trailed by just two points before relinquishing nine straight in the final 2 minutes of the second quarter. Hanford scored the first nine points of the third quarter for a 43-23 lead that effectively put the game out of reach.

“We didn’t come in to play as a team,” said Chris Sorensen, whose 13 points was second to Brad Groh’s 19 for the Eagles. “We had some good individual games, but we were not in sync with each other.”

Telling was the start of the third quarter.

WV coach Jamie Nilles had stressed getting the ball inside and kicking it back out. Instead, the Eagles took outside shots that were quickly turned into Falcons points.

“I thought we’d come out, try to get inside and get back into the game with defense,” said Nilles. “We got it backwards a little bit.”

Hanford scored in streaks, including 12 straight in the first quarter after falling behind 8-5. WV caught up by the end of the first quarter and it stayed that way until the decisive run.

Hanford 17 17 15 24 - 73

West Valley (Spo) 15 8 15 20 - 58

Hanford - Birmingham 19, Massey 0, Hodgson 14, Gailey 16, Gillespie 11, Cramer 11, Hughes 2.

West Valley - Kopp 2, Sly 2, Deno 8, Browning 0, Groh 19, Focht 4, Gregg 4, Spivey 6, Sorensen 13.

Eastmont 48, Cheney 39

A 7-minute scoring drought that carried deep into the fourth quarter did in the Blackhawks.

The team had rallied from a seven-point deficit to tie the game at 29 on Amanda Krogh’s drive to the basket with 2:30 remaining in the third quarter. But Cheney didn’t score again until 3:28 remained.

“I don’t know how many turnovers we had, but we got no shots. And we didn’t rebound well, either,” said Cheney coach Marty Jessett. “They were more aggressive and we didn’t respond.”

Prior to that, both teams had struggled offensively, neither gaining an upper hand. Cheney jumped to a 10-4 lead before the Wildcats went on a 16-4 binge. Cheney tied the score by halftime.

Eastmont scored nine consecutive points in the third quarter, and the Blackhawks caught up again.

Then the Wildcats, without injured star Natalie Jarrett, took command with 11 points while Cheney went scoreless.

Kara Weitman score 16 points and Meghan Conrath 10 for Cheney.

Cheney 12 8 9 10 - 39

Eastmont 10 10 12 16 - 48

Cheney (16-9) - Fockler 0, Conrath 10, Anderson 3, Weitman 16, Van Matre , Urdahl 0, McLauchlin 0, Birchler 1, Marsh 0, Krogh 2, Oyoloker 7.

Eastmont (23-1) - Evenhus 3, Haley 5, Spice 3, Martin 14, Lambert 2, Summers 0, Brownlee 0, Johnson 2, Tomco 11, Jarrett 8.

WV-Yakima 70, EV-Spokane 22

With Shogren in civvies and five other players battling the flu, this game was over in a hurry.

Led by the Borton cousins, Katie and Teresa, who combined for 28 of their 30 points in the first half, the Rams raced to a 21-6 lead and never let up.

“We got kicked,” said EV coach Darsi Frazier after the game. “But we’ll be ready tomorrow.”

West Valley-Yakima 19 21 12 18 - 70

East Valley-Spokane 6 5 4 7 - 22

West Valley-Yakima (22-2) - Martinez 5, Schefter 0, Coon 2, K. Borton 16, Riojas 6, Chase 2, Davis 8, Murillo 9, Hopkins 4, T. Borton 14, Leadon 4.

East Valley (14-9) - Schumacher 0, LeGrant 0, Owen 0, M. Frazier 0, J. Frazier 3, An. Tonani 0, Al. Tonani 8, Schultz 2, Girven 0, Triplett 9, Younker 0.