NWC just gets it done
There wasn’t much aesthetically pleasing about Northwest Christian’s physical 35-31 semifinal win over Moses Lake Christian.
All notions of basketball beauty aside, you can’t help but be impressed with the way NWC’s ground its way into the championship game without shooting better than 37 percent once in three games.
“That’s all we’ve had in this state tournament, just games where we’ve been gutting it out,” said Joe Grewe, who had six of NWC’s eight fourth-quarter points at the Spokane Arena.
“We’re just gutting it out, and it comes from heart. We’ve worked so hard all season, you just don’t want to go home.”
NWC (26-3) moves into its second championship game in three years, but that one ended in a loss to Brewster in 2004 at the 1A tournament in Yakima
It was Grewe’s turn to be the hero, as after a 4-for-22 start to the tournament, he hit six field goals for 12 huge points.
With MLCA (21-6) leading 29-27 with 3:33 left, Grewe got to the basket for a layin, then forced a turnover and hit a pull-up jumper from the left baseline for a two-point lead.
After a pair of Lions free throws with 2:42 left – their last points of the game – Grewe banked in a jumper from the right wing. John Graham finally put the game away by hitting both ends of a one-and-one with 8.9 seconds left.
“Joe’s jumper finally arrived somewhere in the game,” Crusaders head coach Ray Ricks said. “Particularly in the fourth quarter, and we’re glad it did. He was able to knock some really big ones down for us and we’re proud of him.”
MLCA did well in its 2-3 zone to limit the opportunities of NWC’s top scorer, 6-foot-3 center Karl Richardson, holding him to nine field-goal attempts. Richardson still had 15 points and nine rebounds.
“We definitely focused on Richardson,” Lions head coach Lonnie Brown said. “We wanted to limit his touches and I think we did that tonight and then at times, we executed O.K. offensively, and we had a couple plays set up at the end and we didn’t quite execute.”
It’s the second consecutive game where the Crusaders held their opponent to 31 points, necessary when you shoot 46 of 134 (34.3 percent) in three games.
“You have to shoot the ball well to win basketball games and we’re not shooting the ball as well as I would have liked,” Ricks said. “But we’re still winning games. At this point, we’re just very thankful to be winning basketball games and to be here.”
MLCA shot only 32.4 percent from the field, and had five possessions in the last 2:08 to either take the lead or tie the game. The Lions only came away with two missed shots, two turnovers and a missed front end of a one-and-one.
That sets up a matchup with Republic, the first time since 1997 two Northeast District teams have met in the State B championship.