Consolation Summaries
Boys
Wahkiakum 63, Pateros 61
(fifth, eighth places)
Senior Jake Grasseth hit 6 of 10 3-pointers and scored a season-high 18 points to help the Mules edge the Billygoats, last year’s sixth-place team.
Grasseth (5.9 ppg) had had just one 3-pointer in his last eight games, Friday vs.
Mossyrock. Yet in his final high school game, he matched senior Clint Hull of Pateros, the tournament’s all-time leader for 3-pointers in a career, single tournament and game.
“I’m just glad I could go out with a bang,” Grasseth said.
“We’d known Jake was capable of that all year,” said Mules coach Bob Garrett. “He just had to get confidence in his shooting touch.”
Hull hit 6 of 18 3-pointers to finish his tourney career with 54 3-pointers, including 27 this week. His set the single-game record with 10 on Friday against Seattle Lutheran.
Hull finished with 293 points at the tournament, No. 4 all-time, and 2,200 career points. He moved into eighth place on the state’s all-time boys list for all classifications.
“We figured we’d give Hull his 30 and hope for the best,” Garrett said after Hull scored 22. “We watched film on him Friday and said we’d put five guys on him.”
Junior Brian Cochran added 19 points and senior Jerod Moore scored 18 for the Mules. Cochran scored 10 in the fourth quarter and hit 4 of 4 free throws in the final 22.6 seconds.
The game had eight ties and 10 lead changes.
Pateros senior Mark Stennes scored 14 to make the tournament century club, with 103 points.
Wahkiakum 12 14 17 20 - 63
Pateros 15 14 13 19 - 61
Wahkiakum (24-3) - Grasseth 18, Moore 18, Cochran 19, Bell 8, Riley 0, Mitchell 0. Pateros (23-4) - Carlson 8, Lopez 5, Marc. Stennes 6, Sapp 2, Hull 22, Mark Stennes 14, K. Stennes 2, Moore 2.
Wilbur-Creston 64, Ritzville 57
(fourth, seventh places)
Jeff Krause, W-C’s only senior starter, scored a career-high with 15 points on 6-for-7 shooting from the field to lead the Wildcats over their Bi-County League rivals.
Balanced W-C had four players in double figures. Gregg Arden joined Krause for team-high honors.
The Wildcats’ previous best placing was sixth, in 1992.
The teams were not separated by more than four points until W-C opened the fourth quarter with a 6-0 run, beginning with two baskets by Darin Erickson. Arden and A.J. Nelson boosted the lead to double digits with 1:30 left.
Junior Josh Whitman scored 23 for the Broncos, hitting 7 of 8 from the line. Whitman will begin his senior season 23 points shy of 1,000 for his career.
Nelson had a game-high 10 rebounds.
Both teams started just one senior.
The teams split their regular-season series 1-1. The rubber game included some tempers, with an intentional foul and a technical foul in the late going.
Ritzville 13 15 12 17 - 57
Wilbur-Creston 12 16 13 23 - 64
Ritzville (20-10) - Reilly 0, Heider 12, Plager 2, B. Arlt 8, Borth 5, J. Arlt 0, Kuster 7, Whitman 23, Pflugrath 0. Wilbur-Creston (21-6) - Arden 15, Sheffels 0, Johnson 6, Morrison 0, Curo 5, Bunnell 0, Erickson 10, Llewellyn 0, Larkin 2, Krause 15, Nelson 11, Dunlap 0.
Valley Christian 71, Curlew 62
(third, sixth places)
The Panthers broke open a close game with a 21-2 run that started late in the third quarter.
The game began with a bang, after just 4 seconds. Curlew won the tipoff and fed Jeremy Groth for a lay-up. The basket made Groth the all-time scorer in state history, breaking the standard of 2,411 set by Ryan Hansen of Cascade (Leavenworth), now at Eastern Washington University. The game was stopped and Groth received the basketball, to a standing ovation.
Eric Smith, Jared Evans, Brent Decker and Matt Barriero all scored 15 or more points for VC, which had been held to a season-low 42 on Friday.
Smith (1,072) and Evans (1,017) both finished their careers with more than 1,000 points. Decker, a junior, will enter next season just 36 shy of 1,000.
Decker also has 180 career points at the tournament, tied for 28th-best on the all-time list. Smith scored 143 at state, Evans 93.
Groth scored 182 in two tournaments, one spot ahead of Decker on the all-time list.
VC has a 9-3 record at the last three tournaments. The Panthers placed second in ‘98 and fifth in ‘99.
“We wanted (the title) three years in a row,” Smith said. “I guess we just couldn’t get it. But it was a privilege to make it here.”
Curlew also placed sixth at the 1998 tournament.
Valley Christian 10 19 25 17 - 71
Curlew 14 12 16 20 - 62
Valley Christian (27-1) - Miller 0, Smith 20, Knigge 0, Stanaway 0, Barriero 15, Decker 17, Evans 17, Bolster 2, Lacy 0. Curlew (27-4) - Anderson 2, C. Groth 12, J. Groth 36, Olsen 6, Strandberg 2, Stotts 0, Garrison 4.
Girls
Mt. Vernon Christian 52, Selkirk 42
(fifth, eighth places)
The Hurricanes used a 12-0 spurt to end the third quarter and take a 40-25 lead into the fourth.
Sarah Kuipers made 8 of 14 field goals and 5 of 9 free throws for a game-high 21 points and the Hurricanes connected on 23 of 41 shots for 56 percent to Selkirk’s 25.9 percent (14 of 54). The Rangers were outrebounded 40-26. Kuipers had eight boards along with Selkirk’s Wynne Scherf.
Rachea Allert of Selkirk was held to seven points on 3-of-15 shooting and finished with 965 points for her career. Both teams earned trophies for their schools for the first time. It was Selkirk’s second state berth and first since 1983.
“We played hard the whole time,” said a pleased Rangers coach Kelly Cain.
“We set that as our goal to play on Saturday. We believed we had a good opportunity to do it.”
Mt. V. Christian 12 12 16 12 - 52
Selkirk 10 8 7 17 - 42
Mt. Vernon Christian (25-5) - Ledeboer 3, Braun 6, Daniels 0, Wolters 0, Kooy 0, DeJong 0, Westra 0, VanderVeen 14, Lervick 4, Kuipers 21, VanderKooy 0, DeVries 4. Selkirk (24-7) - Fairbairn 8, Scherf 7, D. Haney 0, Pettis 6, Gonzalez 0, M. Haney 2, Dorn 0, D. Beatty 3, M. Beatty 6, Allert 7, Emrick 1, Schmidt 2.
Garfield-Palouse 67, Valley Christian 55
(fourth, seventh places)
Senior Sandra Tronsen scored nine of Gar Pal’s 12 first-quarter points and finished with a career-high 18 on 8-of-14 shooting.
Both teams struggled in the first quarter, when they combined for 15 turnovers. But Gar-Pal shot 47 percent in the first half and 45 percent for the game to Valley Christian’s 34 percent. Gar-Pal senior Katie Coles scored eight of her 12 points in the second half.
Panthers sophomore Carli Smith was in foul trouble all game along with teammate Kasie Cupp. Smith fouled out with 59.4 left after scoring 19 points and grabbing 13 rebounds, both game-highs. Cupp added 12 points, three 3-pointers.
Gar-Pal 12 18 14 23 - 67
Valley Christian 12 15 14 14 -55
Garfield-Palouse (24-3) - Smick 0, Iverson 14, Kildew 5, Parrish 0, Fox 2, Tronsen 18, Coles 12, Hayden 6, Swinney 8, Worthington 0, Cronk 2, Hershaw 0.
Valley Christian (22-5) - Teterud 1, Lanker 8, Altmeyer 0, Smith 19, Rosholt 0, Arnhold 3, Evans 2, Cupp 12, Monforton 3, Peterson 7.
Lyle 51, Napavine 46
(third, sixth places)
Deeandra Smith passed for six assists, including two for key fourth-quarter baskets by the Cougars after Napavine’s Carrie Spencer had pulled her team within one, 31-29, with 7:16 left.
Smith, a 5-foot-2 senior, also scored 13 points, converting 3 of 4 free throws in the final 1:10. Spencer scored 17 points on 5-of-14 shooting to finish her career with 2,379. She had 70 points in four games. But the Tigers shot only 32 percent from the field to Lyle’s 43 percent.
Lindsey Blaine scored seven of her 11 points in the fourth quarter for Lyle, which was outrebounded 31-29.
Faith Winslow and Kelsey West sparked Napavine’s comeback. Winslow scored five of her 14 points in the final 3:28 and West had three straight baskets for the Tigers in the last 2:41.
Napavine 10 6 11 19 - 46
Lyle 14 7 8 22 - 51
Napavine (21-6) - Am. Jenson 0, Moon 2, Bulock 2, Ap. Jenson 0, J. Spencer 2, Winslow 14, C. Spencer 17, Russell 3, West 6. Lyle (23-3) - Smith 13, Mayner 0, Busick 0, S. Billette 5, H. Billette 5, Lucas 14, Hylton 0, Sorensen 3, Blaine 11, Huffman 0.