Pullman, Lakeside Dazzle In Title Games

District 7 2A

Talk about your champions!

Pullman’s boys and Lakeside’s girls brought their “A” games to the District 7 2A championships Friday night at Mt. Spokane High School.

The unbeaten, second-ranked Greyhounds (22-0) got 41 points from senior Brent Cummings and cruised to a 90-74 victory over a pesky Deer Park Stags squad to win the boys title and a No. 1 seed into the state basketball tournament beginning Wednesday at the Sundome in Yakima.

Sophomore point guard Kate Reome came off the bench to score 27 points and spark the top-ranked Eagles (21-1) to a 73-51 win over the second-ranked Newport Grizzlies in the girls title game. Lakeside will take its No. 1 seed to Yakima as the defending state champion.

Deer Park (16-7) will take on Lakeside (13-10) tonight at 7:45 at Mt. Spokane to decide the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds to the boys tourney.

Newport (20-2) will play Colville (11-12) at 5 p.m. to decide the girls No. 2 and No. 3 seeds.

Pullman 90, Deer Park 74

Pullman came out smokin’, knocking down four 3-pointers, two by Cummings and two by Ryan Harms, in the opening 2 minutes, 55 seconds to jump out to a 14-4 lead.

But an 11-point, first-quarter effort from Adam Swinyard, who finished with a team-high 28 points, kept Deer Park within 30-23 at the quarter’s end.

“We shot the ball really well,” said Pullman coach Ken Swanger. “This is a great group of kids. They’re very athletic, so it makes for a fun style of basketball. They weren’t going to be denied tonight.”

Although Deer Park led just once (2-0) the Stags gave the Greyhounds all they could handle for most of the game.

“I think we proved we belonged out there tonight,” noted Stags coach Jason Thompson. “They blew us out of the gym the first two times we played them, so tonight, we just decided to go right at them. I was really proud of our muscle on the boards. They’re a much bigger team, but our rebounding was there for us tonight. It’s been 25 years since we went to state, so we’re still pretty excited.”

Deer Park trailed 42-36 with 1:41 remaining in the first half, but the 6-foot, 7-inch Cummings nailed a pair of 3-pointers in the last 50 seconds to put the Greyhounds up 48-39.

“Brent really stepped up for us,” said Swanger. “The University of Montana got themselves a heck of a player.”

Josh Bray turned in a fine 24-point effort for Pullman, which hopes to improve on its one-win, two-loss showing at last year’s state tourney.

Deer Park 23 16 14 21 - 74

Pullman 30 18 20 22 - 90

Deer Park (16-7) - Axel 10, Swinyard 28, White 7, Henry 3, Westerman 3, Mitchell 0, Frickey 11, Zimmerer 4, Morse 2, Thompson 2.

Pullman (22-0) - Sheridan 1, Cummings 41, Baumgartner 0, Paulson 0, Bray 24, Harms 13, Meyers 0, Rurangirwa 3, Morscheck 2, Weeks 2, Poole 2, Petz 2.

Lakeside 73, Newport 51

Newport jumped out to an 8-4 lead at the 4:12 mark of the first quarter before Lakeside’s Nikki Petticrew took over.

Petticrew, the only senior on the team, scored nine of her 13 first-quarter points in a 13-0 run to put the Eagles up 17-8. Then, she was content to let the Lakeside underclassmen take over the show.

“Nikki is a very unselfish player,” said coach Lisa Schultz. “She’s always been like that. She could score 25 points a night if she wanted to.”

The Eagles, who also start a freshman, sophomore and two juniors, outscored the Grizzlies 20-6 in the second period to take a 37-16 lead into the locker room at halftime. They never looked back.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better defensive effort,” stated Schultz. “We played lousy defense when we lost to them (at Newport). The last two games against them (both victories), our defensive intensity was there.”

Newport senior Carey Sauer made a valiant effort to get her team back in the game in the second half. Sauer scored 24 of her team’s 35 points after the break and finished with a game-high 32.

“Nikki did a good job on Sauer in the first half,” said Schultz. “Carey is a smart player and when Nikki got in foul trouble in the second half, she (Sauer) really dominated inside.”

Lakeside 17 20 17 19 - 73

Newport 10 6 18 17 - 51

Lakeside (21-1) - Tikker 0, Reome 27, Giampietri 2, Vojtech 3, Petticrew 17, Ryan 2, Barcus 13, Wilkins 0, Stillar 9.

Newport (20-2) - Wiese 0, Haptonstall 2, Lindburg 12, Olsen 0, C. Sauer 32, R. Sauer 0, Schulz 5, A. Almond 0, Dahlin 0.