CV, WV boys face key games

Central Valley and West Valley boys remain in the thick of a seven-team basketball title race as the Greater Spokane League surpassed the midpoint of its season Tuesday night.

A game separates the seven teams. The Bears and Eagles, 11-3 overall and 5-2 in the GSL are part of a four-way tie for fourth place behind three schools and face four key games during the final six nights of the season.

CV has one of the most difficult finishing schedules of the seven. The Bears lost 67-48 to Shadle Park Tuesday night. On successive Tuesdays they are at Gonzaga Prep (6-1) and Mt. Spokane (5-2), host WV two days later and North Central (6-1) to end the season.

The Eagles play games two days apart against Prep on Feb. 7 followed by CV.

Coaches said that this would again be a wide-open GSL boys season and they weren’t kidding.

“It doesn’t really surprise me,” said WV coach Jamie Nilles of the closeness of the league. “Some teams match up better with each other and some give each other fits.”

Added CV coach Rick Sloan, “There are a lot of teams that can beat you.”

League favorite West Valley lost in overtime earlier in the season to North Central, which was unbeaten until Friday. During last week’s games against other league leaders, the Eagles lost by six points to Ferris after leading into the fourth quarter, and edged Shadle 59-57 on Tyler Hobbs‘ 24-point night.

“Shadle was probably one of our better games as a team,” said Nilles. “We’ve got nine guys who can play, but they have to be productive coming in and some games we’ve been playing on three cylinders instead of five.”

Still, he’s not unhappy that the Eagles, a consensus pick to win the GSL, have two losses.

“Deep down I think we needed to get rocked a little bit and remember we needed to keep working this season to get better,” he said. “That’s really OK. We want to be the best team we can be at the end of the year.”

CV’s losses came to Ferris early in the season and Tuesday night despite a 19-point game by Brad Johnson. Johnson appeared close to full strength in his sixth game back after spraining an ankle.

He was the second-half offensive catalyst. Included among the points were four 3-point baskets. Junior Nick Ambrose has had four successive strong games and leads the Bears with a 12.8 average.

“You can just tell Brad is getting his movement and confidence back,” said Sloan. “Nick has been playing well lately.”

CV, however, was without Kevin Cameron (sprained toe) and Brad Dieter (injured shoulder) against Shadle.

“Once we get healthy again, we’ll be fine,” said Sloan.

University (5-10, 2-5) suffered an overtime loss to nemesis Cheney Friday, but did get a career-high 21 points by sophomore Tyler Olson. He didn’t play in Tuesday’s loss to NC. East Valley (3-11, 0-7) enters the 3A phases of its GSL schedule beginning Friday night in the Golden Throne game against WV and continuing with games against North Central, Clarkston and Cheney in succession. Dylan Sattin is averaging 18.3 points per game after scoring 25 Tuesday night.

Titans schedule challenging

University’s girls basketball schedule ramps up toward a season-ending showdown with Lewis and Clark.

The Titans (12-2, 7-0) have tough games beginning with Mead next Tuesday. They also have Ferris, a team that beat them in preseason, and Shadle Park before the Feb. 16 date at LC.

Angie Bjorklund scored 34 points in their most recent two wins and remains one of four U-Hi double figures scorers.

Central Valley’s schedule parallels the boys in its bid for a district playoff spot. The Bears (9-5, 5-2) lost to Mead last week, beat Shadle on Tuesday and have Gonzaga Prep and LC awaiting.

Heidi Heintz (19.3 points per game average) was held to nine against the Panthers. Salena Leavitt has averaged 17.3 points in her last three games. And they welcomed back fellow fourth-year varsity player Sarah Gehring, who sat out two games following a concussion. She scored 19 in a 70-48 win at Shadle

East Valley (5-9, 1-6) has lost six of its last seven games since upsetting Gonzaga Prep. Included was a narrow loss to the Bullpups on Tuesday. West Valley (2-12, 1-6) barely lost to Shadle on Friday.

Dream Duals champs

University and East Valley defended their championships last weekend in the Washington Dream Duals.

The Titans won the 4A title 30-28 in a comeback thriller against Lake Stevens after beating Moses Lake 38-27 and Enumclaw 48-21.

In the title match U-Hi’s four lower-weight wrestlers, Pat Belknap, 103 pounds, Casey Olsen, 112, Brian Owen, 119 and Mike Malsam, 125 were all victorious. Olsen won by forfeit.

Malsam opened the night with his 10-1 win, the other three completed a four-match rally for the victory. Trevor Robb, 152, Nick Zumwalt, 171, and Dono Totten, 275 got the other wins.

The Knights also came from behind to defeat Bellingham 30-26 for the 3A title.

They trailed 14-0 before Josh Sporn and Bryce Fisher had back-to-back wins at 140 and 145 pounds.

Tony Michalski, 189, Jimmy Martin, 215, and Tyler Jolley, 275, won by pin. Anthony Rivera, 112, and Shelby Lawson, 119, completed the comeback.

Central Valley topped Moses Lake 34-31 to finish third in 4A. The Bears defeated Battle Ground 39-37 and lost to Lake Stevens 41-19 in pool play.