Sherwood’s 3-pointer sends Wilbur-Creston to state

It’s a shot they’ll talk about in Wilbur and Creston long after Joel Sherwood’s gone.

Parts of the two communities stood on the floor at Mt. Spokane High long after Sherwood’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer Thursday, shaking their heads at the last four days of Wilbur-Creston boys basketball.

They went from the fourth-best Bi-County team to the District 7 B championship and a state-tournament berth with a 55-54 win over Lind-Ritzville.

The Wildcats play Northwest Christian, a 47-41 winner over Reardan, in the championship on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at Mt. Spokane. L-R moves into a loser-out game against Wellpinit today at 5 p.m. at Mt. Spokane.

With 3.4 seconds left and down two points, Wilbur-Creston (15-11) took the ball out under its basket.

W-C’s 6-foot-5 senior, Michael Johnson, stood at the free-throw line, the intended target of a long pass. Johnson batted the ball out to Sherwood, who stepped into a 3-pointer and drained it.

Really, it was just how they drew it up.

“That’s exactly what Coach said,” Johnson said. “That play is exactly how our assistant coach (Jason Maioho) drew it up. He said, ‘Line up on the free-throw line and get it out to a shooter.’ “

Sherwood hadn’t yet hit a 3-pointer, had sprained his ankle earlier in the game and hit 1 of 3 free throws in a crucial trip to the line with 50 seconds left.

“I don’t even know what to think right now,” Sherwood said. “We knew we had a lot of picking up to do, coming into this tournament as the fourth seed from the Bi-County and we had to go and play Republic. All the other teams before the Bi-County even started didn’t want to get fourth place and have to play Republic.”

W-C upset second-ranked Republic 73-69 on Monday, then beat L-R (16-9) for the first time in three tries to send head coach Tom Johnson, Michael’s father, to his fifth state tournament in his last season coaching the Wildcats. During that stretch, he’s had three sons start on state-tournament teams.

“It’s a good way to go out,” the elder Johnson said. “They play hard for me.”

W-C, which lost five straight in December and early January, opened the Bi-County tournament with a four-point home loss to Almira/Coulee-Hartline, then won two loser-out games to make the district tournament.

“We got beat by ACH and I think that irritated us,” Johnson said. “Then we went to districts to play Republic and I said, ‘Hey, there’s more than half the teams around that would give anything to play in that game,’ and they stepped up and played the game like they could.”

L-R took the lead with 11 seconds left when Cameron Stevenson, who led the Broncos with 22 points, drove and dropped a beautiful pass to Myles Borth for a layin and a one-point lead.

After a W-C turnover, the Broncos hit 1 of 2 free throws to set up the final play.

W-C had three in double figures and shot 60 percent (24 of 40) from the field, with Shayne Lewis leading the way, totaling 19 points and seven rebounds.

NWC 47, Reardan 41: The Crusaders (21-3) finally grabbed the upper hand late in a slower, more physical game played at Reardan’s pace.

Reardan (14-12) led NWC 28-24 after three quarters at Mt. Spokane, but the seventh-ranked Crusaders opened the fourth on a 7-0 run, with two layins from Karl Richardson and Chase Ramey’s first points of the game, a huge 3-pointer.

NWC made just enough free throws to finish it, hitting 14 of 19 in the fourth to hold off Reardan.

“We finally got the ball inside to Richardson in a nice position in the paint and Ramey was finally able to get in the paint with the dribble,” NWC head coach Ray Ricks said.

Richardson had 18 points and seven rebounds to lead the Crusaders to their second State B tourney in as many years.

“I think under pressure, we’re a lot better,” Richardson said. “We realized it was either do or die and turned it on.”

Reardan drops into a loser-out game with Republic at 5 p.m. today at Mead.

Republic 76, Selkirk 53: The Tigers (21-3) bounced back from Monday’s loss by blowing out the Rangers (17-9) in a loser-out game at Mead.

Derek Gianukakis had 30 to lead Republic, which beat Selkirk a fourth straight time.

Wellpinit 74, Curlew 70: Wellpinit (15-10) had five players in double figures to eliminate the Cougars (17-6) at Mead.

Jacob Marcellay had 13 points and 16 rebounds, Norbert Abrahamson scored 16 and Jake Green added 15 to pace Wellpinit.

District 6 1A

Lake Roosevelt’s girls knocked off Liberty Bell 66-52 at Brewster to set up a meeting with third-ranked Colfax in a winner-to-state, loser-out game on Saturday at 6 p.m., also in Brewster.