Few games remain for area basketball teams

Sat., Feb. 4, 2006

By Mike Vlahovich mikev@spokesman.com (509) 927-2180

Today

Boys basketball: Valley Christian is at Liberty, 7:30 p.m.

Girls basketball: Valley Christian is at Liberty, 6 p.m.

Wrestling: Central Valley and University are at the District 8 4A tournament, 10 a.m. at Mead. Freeman is at the District 7 1A/B tournament, Reardan, 10 a.m. East Valley and West Valley are in the 3A sub-regional tournament, Sunnyside, noon.

Tuesday

Boys basketball: CV is at Mt. Spokane, EV is at Cheney, WV hosts Gonzaga Prep and U-Hi hosts Shadle Park, 5:45 p.m. Freeman hosts Post Falls and Valley Christian hosts Sprague-Harrington, 7:30 p.m.

Girls basketball: CV is at Mt. Spokane, EV is at Cheney, WV hosts Gonzaga and U-Hi hosts Shadle. Freeman hosts Post Falls, 5:45 p.m. Valley Christian hosts Sprague-Harrington, 6 p.m.

Just three games remain for Valley Greater Spokane League basketball teams. Most of them are thinking about postseason.

Freeman has just one game remaining and Valley Christian two, including tonight, in their respective leagues.

Postseason play is assured for Central Valley and West Valley boys, University, Central Valley and East Valley girls.

EV boys and WV girls took steps Thursday also to advance.

Freeman boys and girls teams and Valley Christian boys also are assured at least one playoff game. All that’s left is to determine final places.

Only Valley Christian girls and U-Hi boys are eliminated from postseason.

GSL boys jockey

Some space was created this week among seven GSL boys teams. Three remain tied for first place, but West Valley is now alone in fourth and could make that a tie for third.

The Eagles (14-3, 8-2) trail the trio by a game and host one of the leaders, Gonzaga Prep on Tuesday.

They beat Rogers on Thursday, getting a phenomenal 54 points from posts, Tyler Hobbs and E.J. Richardson.

Hobbs, who’s bound for the University of Montana to play football, scored 32 to go with 10 rebounds, four assists and five steals. And he played just over three quarters of the 81-54 win. He’s averaging 17.2 points per game for the year.

Richardson had 14 rebounds to go with his 22 points.

The Eagles finish against Central Valley and Clarkston.

CV (13-4, 7-3) is tied for fifth in league and can finish as high as third among 4A teams. The Bears lost to Gonzaga on Tuesday and beat Lewis and Clark Thursday with Luke Clift scoring 20 points, his second-best this year.

They finish against Mt. Spokane, WV and tri-leader North Central.

East Valley (4-13, 1-9) moved into the fourth District 3A spot with victory over Clarkston. Dylan Sattin scored 20 points and is averaging 17.9 for the season. Josh Peck and Tanner Hamilton were also in double figures.

The Knights final three games are against Cheney, University and Mead.

U-Hi (5-13, 2-8) finishes its season against Shadle Park, EV and LC. The Titans lost last week to Mead and Ferris. Mike Pierce scored 25 points and season scoring leader Kyle Olson had 24 in the two games.

Parity of five

Regardless of where they finish, recent scores show than not one of five GSL girls teams is invulnerable.

University (14-3, 9-1) lost sole possession of first place with Tuesday’s loss to 58-53 loss at home to Mead. But the team traveled to Ferris and lit it up to bounce back. The Titans had 12 3-point baskets in a 72-44 romp.

Kara Crisp scored 18 points, all on 3-point baskets. Angie Bjorklund had three 3-pointers and 20 points. She’s averaging 18.4 for the year. Dara Zack maintained her season scoring average (13.2) with 13 points against the Saxons.

U-Hi ends the season Feb. 16 at Lewis and Clark in a game that will likely determine a first-place tie and automatic regional berth or a loser-out first-round district game.

Though Central Valley (10-7, 6-4) will finish fifth in league, the Bears have shown potential given the closeness of two recent losses.

They lost by a point at tri-leader Gonzaga Prep — a victor over Lewis and Clark — in a game they could have won. Earlier CV lost to 8-2 Mead by four points and gave the Titans fits.

The Bears trailed Gonzaga 19-6 after a quarter, but outscored the Bullpups 23-9 to lead at half. Heidi Heintz and point guard Justine Bowman combined for 15 points in the period.

Although second-half turnovers proved damaging, CV trailed just 46-45 on Bowman’s free throws with 1:12 left in the game.

Corrina O’Brien made an amazing, athletic basket in traffic with 47 seconds left and the Bears couldn’t get closer. League scoring leader Heintz (19.2 points per game) scored 23 hard-earned points and Bowman added 11 for all but 15 of CV’s total in the 50-49 setback.

CV can win out against its final three foes.

The Knights (7-10, 3-7) will be District 8 3A second or third seed depending upon Tuesday’s outcome at Cheney. They lost Thursday 54-48 to top 3A team Clarkston.

In her last four games Kelsey Hentges has averaged 19.3 points per game. Kylee Williamson has averaged just under 13.0 in her last three.

West Valley (3-14, 2-8) took a major step to a district berth with its 40-39 win Thursday over Rogers. Lacey Nordby hit the winning basket with under 20 seconds to play. Krystal McCarthy scored 16 points, including four 3-point baskets.

Freeman hangs close

Freeman’s boys and girls basketball teams played at Colfax on Friday in games that were as much for pride as for playoff seeding advantage.

If the Scotties girls (16-2, 3-1) won, they’d move into a tie for first place with the Bulldogs in the Northeast A League.

If the boys (11-7, 2-2) won, they’d share second place with Colfax and could ultimately be part of a three-way title tie depending upon next week’s season-ending league games.

But the foes will likely face off again anyway during district and regional state qualifying competition.

Last week Freeman’s revamped boys handed Kettle Falls its first league 43-41 behind the four-pronged efforts of Andrew Dresback, Luke Heinen, Christian Casto and Michael Wittwer.

Dresback had a season high 18 points during a nonleague win over Riverside.

Four different Scotties scored in double figures during their two wins over the same teams. Jessie DePell averaged 18 a game to maintain her season average (18.2 points per game).

Jenessa Miller averaged 11.0 per game, while Kelsey Raines and Claire Moberg also had double-figures efforts.

Panther fate up in air

Fate of struggling Valley Christian’s boys basketball team rests on the outcome of its final three games.

The Panthers (9-8, 7-8) have lost six of their last eight games to drop into a tie for seventh place in the Bi-County.

They are assured a top-eight finish in the Bi-County League tournament, but only the top four are assured double-elimination.

Valley Christian would have to win its final three games, including at second-place Liberty tonight, in order to finish at least fourth.

Vitaliy Kozubenko scored 77 points in the Panthers last four games and is fourth in the Bi-County with a 17.6 average. Josh Pope is averaging 13.7 points per game.

Kozubenko twice had games of 24 last week in losses to Reardan, Northwest Christian and Lind-Ritzville. Pope scored 28 Tuesday against the Broncos.

The girls team (1-16, 1-14) will end their season. Kassey Miller leads the team in scoring average, having missed four games this year, and Lexie Riggan in total points. Both are scoring more than nine points per game.

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