Willapa Valley avoids rude awakening in early morning test

Sometimes a powerhouse team needs a wake-up call. This can come in the form of a loss late in the regular season. But at the state tournament, it doesn’t have this luxury.

So, for Willapa Valley, the eye-opener came in the form of a challenging first-round test, which the Vikings passed with a 62-57 victory over LaCrosse-Washtucna.

Willapa Valley, the District 4 champion, glided into the tournament. Coming into Wednesday’s game, the Vikings’ slimmest margin of victory came in a 61-60 win over North Beach on Dec. 11. And the last time the Vikings (25-0) won by less than double digits came on Dec. 22 in a 59-53 win over 1A Napavine.

Willapa Valley is no stranger to state tournament competition. This is its 21st appearance in State B competition, including five showings in the past six seasons.

Last season Willapa Valley placed sixth, but came into the state tournament as the lone undefeated team.

The Tigercats (20-6) came to the tournament as the District 9 runner-up. This appearance for LaCrosse-Washtucna marked is its fourth since combining schools, and the first since 2002. The best finish for the Tigercats came in 1997 at eighth place.

“I know (Tigercats coach) Brian (Koller) from when we coached girls against each other on the West Side,” said Willapa Valley coach John Peterson. “His teams always play aggressive, and I don’t think they let you into Whitman County unless you’re a tough kid and a good basketball player.”

The Tigercats began the game by scoring seven consecutive points. After a timeout, the Vikings went on a 17-4 run, including seven from Ryan Freeman. Freeman, a 6-foot-4 guard and three-year starter, scored 11 of his 17 points in the first half.

“They got off to a quick start, but we knew we would eventually get into it,” Freeman said. “Both teams like to run, so I thought we did well scoring points off of fastbreaks.”

The Vikings increased their lead 25-11 before the Tigercats’ Justin McKenzie hit a 3-pointer from the corner at the 2:52 mark. The basket ended a drought of over eight pointless minutes for the Tigercats. Craig Koller’s two 3-pointers with under 1:30 to play in the half capped a stretch of 16 unanswered points from the Tigercats, giving them a 27-25 halftime lead.

“We hit a few shots at the beginning and then went on a six-minute dry spell,” Koller said. “Then all of a sudden, boom! We hit our shots.”

With just over two minutes remaining in the third quarter Alex Michel hit a 3-pointer, giving LC/W a 40-37 lead. A bucket from Freeman cut his team’s deficit to one, and with 28 seconds remaining in the quarter Brady Langer rolled in a lay-up, giving Willapa Valley the lead for good. Langer scored a game-high 18 points, including 7 of 7 from the free-throw line.

The Vikings were able to retain their lead due in large part to improved shooting (54 percent in the second half), and the inside-outside combo of Zach Baugher and Langer. The two combined for 22 of Willapa Valley’s 37 second-half points. This included a stretch of six minutes in the fourth quarter when the duo scored 16 of their team’s 18 points. Baugher, a 6-foot-11 post, scored 11 points in the half on 5-of-7 shooting. He finished with 15.

“The win wasn’t pretty, but who cares? At this point it doesn’t matter,” Peterson said. “We’re just trying to stay to the right on the bracket, so we’ll take it.”

Next in line for Willapa Valley is Selkirk (18-10), which squeaked by Neah Bay 53-50.