Undefeated Ferris rolls to regional title

KENNEWICK – It wasn’t pretty as far as basketball regional championships go, but the Ferris Saxons boys continue to wear on the opposition and remained undefeated Saturday with a 65-44 victory over Pasco.

The outcome was a nice present for coach Don Van Lierop’s wife Amy, whose birthday coincides with the busiest time of her basketball husband’s season.

“I told her when I met her it was a difficult time of the year,” he said. “She puts up with a lot.”

The Saxons (25-0) are the lone Greater Spokane League representative to next week’s State 4A tournament in Tacoma following their second straight Eastern Regional title in Kennewick’s Toyota Center. Shadle Park (18-9) which earlier in the day ousted Mead 59-42, was eliminated by Eisenhower in the game for the third regional state berth, 49-45.

Ferris’ win came in a foul-filled affair, but the pounding the players took wasn’t without benefit. The Saxons converted 16 of 22 first-half free throws and 29 of 40 overall to steadily pull away from their Columbia Basin League foe.

The Bulldogs tried to counter from the 3-point arc, but after falling behind 21-5 early in the second quarter, the effort proved futile.

Not that fouls – a total of 45 called on the two teams combined – weren’t a problem for the Saxons. DeAngelo Casto was saddled with a couple in the first half and sat. He picked up two more in the first 2 minutes of the third quarter and wasn’t really a factor in the outcome.

But his replacement, Beau Brett, provided a pick-me-up for his team, scoring nine points and pulling down three rebounds. Shawn Stockton, who came out of his scoring funk the night before, provided overall court leadership with 13 points by making 11 of 14 free-throw attempts, pulling down a team-high 11 rebounds and dishing out five assists.

“I didn’t play great the two games before these, so I really wanted to pick it up going into state and do whatever to get it done,” Stockton said.

Ferris broke a 5-all tie with Casto scoring four points. A few more free throws later, Jeff Minnerly scored twice to end the first quarter and the run carried over into the second. The Saxons maintained their 16-point lead until Pasco made two 3-pointers and closed to within eight points at intermission.

Brett, after replacing Casto, hauled down a rebound, scored, was fouled and made the free throw to begin a third-quarter run that eventually put the game away.

“Coming of the bench you have to be a role player, a guy with energy to make something happen,” Brett said.

The play put Ferris ahead by 13 and the lead stretched to 20 by quarter’s end.

Eisenhower 49, Shadle Park 45: Played close to the vest from the outset, it came down to a three-point play with 3:22 remaining in the game to put the Highlanders (18-9) on their heels and eventually end their season.

Matt Peterson, a 6-foot-6 forward, dropped down the lane for a layin and free throw that put the Cadets (19-8) ahead 36-33. Forced to foul, Shadle fell behind by five points and couldn’t make enough 3-pointers to offset Ike free throws.

Shadle led as much as 20-13 on the scoring of freshman Aaron Dunn and was up 33-31 in the fourth quarter before hitting a lull. Humphrey made five 3-pointers for 15 points. Anthony Brown and Dunn were also in double figures.

Shadle 59, Mead 42: The Highlanders outscored the Panthers 26-7 in the fourth quarter of their loser-out game bringing an end to Mead’s (18-8) season.

Shadle trailed 25-19 at halftime and was still down a basket entering the final period. Zack Humphrey made four 3-pointers and scored 19 points.

All-tournament: University’s Angie Bjorklund and Ferris’ Shawn Stockton were named MVPs of their respective regional tournaments. Also on the all-tournament girls first team were U-Hi’s Dara Zack, Mead’s Kelli Valentine and Lewis and Clark’s Katelan Redmon. First-team boys included Ferris’ DeAngelo Casto and Shadle’s Zack Humphrey.