Plucky LC girls, Ferris boys rule Chicken

Unbeaten Ferris boys and Lewis and Clark girls basketball teams divvied up Greater Spokane League victories Thursday night during their annual Rubber Chicken spirit rivalry, leaving it up to Chuck to break the tie.

Neither game was close. LC’s girls opened with a 61-35 triumph, and the Saxons finished by winning 65-42 in front of 5,858 rabid fans at the Arena.

Although the LC drill team wowed the crowd with its entertaining multifaceted routine during halftime of the boys game, for the third straight year Chuck the Chicken went home with Ferris.

But not until the two victorious basketball teams provided their own entertainment and each ran their GSL records to 10-0.

Defense provided the difference for LC’s girls, whose trapping full- and half-court pressure frustrated the Saxons (5-5).

It took awhile for the Tigers to get started. But the die was cast when they led Ferris 11-8 after a quarter by parlaying three turnovers into baskets.

When the Tigers ratcheted up the pressure even more and got the tempo to their liking – which is the key to their success, according to coach Jim Redmon – they scored the final 11 points of the first half to lead 34-17.

“We started all our seniors and the chemistry was different,” said Redmon of the slow start. “It took time to get the flow going.”

The second half was more to his liking.

Katelan Redmon, Lyndi Seidensticker and Brittany Kennedy, who normally starts but deferred to a senior, accounted for 26 of LC’s 34 first-half points. Kennedy had several steals to particularly disrupt Ferris.

The Saxons hit nearly 60 percent from the field, but turned the ball over 20 times and could only get off 12 shots. They didn’t end a scoring drought of nearly 8 minutes until the 4:41 mark of the third quarter.

The Tigers led 58-23 after Ula Tauala scored their first 11 points of the fourth quarter.

Tauala, a senior, had missed nearly five games because of shoulder problems.

“She’s getting better, she really is,” said Redmon. “I was hoping she’d have a breakout game, so I’m pleased.”

The Tigers are at University (9-1) Tuesday in a GSL girls showdown.

In the game that followed, there was no stopping Ferris’ boys after they fell behind early, 7-6. The Saxons scored 13 straight points, eight by Jared Karstetter, and built a 28-9 lead into the second quarter.

Karstetter finished the half with 13 points and Shawn Stockton, who was in and out of the game because of a pair of fouls, provided a second-quarter surge.

“I thought in the first half Jared came to play,” said Saxons coach Don Van Lierop. “And you could say Shawn definitely is the straw that stirs the drink. We flow smoother when he’s in the game.”

The second half was mostly Karstetter and Erick Cheadle. Karstetter finished with a game-high 23 points and Cheadle scored 12 of his 17 in the final two quarters.

Skylar Kliewer did his best to keep LC (3-7) in the game, scoring 16 points, but the Tigers never came closer than 11 – in the first half after Ferris’ early surge.

Saxons season scoring leader DeAngelo Casto scored six points, but he enjoyed the atmosphere of the Rubber Chicken and his first time in the Arena.

“I had so much fun,” he said. “I love the Arena and I love the crowd. I feed off the crowd.”

After the game, Van Lierop told his players to savor the experience, but cautioned that the win was only the first day of what he called a two-day tournament.

Tonight, Ferris hosts Mead (8-2), which has won eight of nine since its season-opening loss to the Saxons.