Tigercats will make the trip to Spokane

PULLMAN — There have been plenty of near misses for LaCrosse-Washtucna over the last three seasons, but now head coach Brian Koller and his gang can finally book their bus ride to Spokane for the first time since 2002.

L-W had some flashbacks to past losses at the worst times — including one from the night before in the District 9 B championship game on Friday — but managed to hang on for a 53-47 win over Tekoa-Oakesdale at Friel Court and a No. 2 seed out of the Southeast for a berth in the state tournament.

Koller’s team didn’t get there as it might have imagined. Going up against DeSales the night before, post players Kyle Lepper and Matt Martin combined for 42 points. But Saturday night, playing T-O for the fourth time this season, the Tigercats weren’t able to get the ball inside nearly as often.

In fact, Lepper and Martin combined for just 15 points. But the L-W guards, which struggled mightily in the championship game, came up big in their final shot at the state tournament.

Senior Craig Koller, the head coach’s nephew, played an efficient game at point guard and scored a game-high 20 points. T-O (19-7) drilled three 3-pointers in the last 90 seconds to pull within three, but Koller calmly sank four free throws to ice the game and punch his team’s ticket.

“The kid made free throws. And he had to,” the coach said. “He had some major redemption after (Friday) night. He had played pretty poorly. But he stepped up tonight and played well.”

Bobby Ellis had a team-high 13 points for T-O and Austin Cook added 12.

L-W (20-5) was 2-1 in its previous games this year against T-O, and two of those games went to overtime, including one earlier this week. The head coach said he felt more confident about facing T-O a fourth time this year than he did facing DeSales for the first time, because he knew exactly what challenges his team would face.

“We knew that we could beat them. Going into (Friday), I don’t know that we really knew we could beat DeSales,” he said. “Spokane’s a lot of fun. To get back there this year will be wonderful.

“They’re not only (State B-8) football champions now. They can be basketball champions.”