First place on line when U-Hi girls meet LC

The new year’s Greater Spokane League basketball push continues Tuesday night with first place on the line when Lewis and Clark’s girls play at University.

Games between the two over the past four seasons have been attracting large audiences and been hugely entertaining.

They have compiled identical league 52-4 records and, in the three seasons previous to this, split 10 games including playoffs.

The defending state champion Tigers (11-0) broke the tie with an entertaining 75-71 overtime win when the teams met in the first week of this season. It is the Titans’ (10-1) only loss.

The game will feature the league’s top two female players, Tennessee-bound Angie Bjorklund for U-Hi and University of Washington recruit Katelan Redmon of LC.

Bjorklund, in cased you missed it, has scored 287 points so far this year, a 26.1 average. With nine games remaining she is already the GSL’s career all-time scorer with 1,086 and has surpassed Heather Bowman’s year-old mark for all games by nearly 100 points with 1,677.

Can Saxons be caught?

Ferris made quick work of last Friday’s boys GSL game with Mead, then tied for second place, rolling to a 21-8 first-quarter lead en route to a 71-45 victory.

The victory puts the Saxons (11-0) in good shape at the top. Shadle Park (9-2) appears to be the only team with a chance to challenge them for a title. Those two teams play again at Ferris on Jan. 19. Ferris won at Shadle 57-49 in their first game.

Gonzaga Prep is the only other team the Saxons haven’t beaten by double digits.

New-look Eagles survive

With a new lineup in a new league, West Valley has been living on the edge.

State 3A placers the two previous years, the Eagles are now in the Great Northern League.

Playing former Greater Spokane League mates, they nearly lost a huge lead Friday night and needed overtime on Saturday for a pair of harrowing victories, by two points over Cheney and three points in two overtimes at Clarkston.

The Eagles (5-2 overall, 2-0 in the GNL) are among three league unbeatens, including Pullman (4-5, 3-0) and Medical Lake (5-3, 2-0).

Pullman’s girls continue unbeaten through nine games and share first-place at 3-0 with Clarkston. Bantams newcomer Kellie McCann-Smith and Montana-bound Misty Atkinson have been a potent one-two scoring punch, averaging more than 30 points per game combined.

First-place showdown

There’s another showdown tomorrow when Liberty travels to Northwest Christian in a Bi-County League boys game to determine first place.

The defending champion Crusaders (11-0 overall, 7-0 in league) and Lancers (10-1, 7-0) have a three-game lead over the rest of the Bi-County field after winning twice each over the weekend.

Curlew (7-4, 5-1) and Republic (12-1, 6-0 in their Panorama League divisions and Tekoa-Oakesdale (6-3, 3-0) in Whitman County have one game leads among boys.

Colton’s Jan. 2 67-66 two-overtime girls victory over Sprague-Harrington, despite 40 points by Ronni Jo Mielke, has been a Whitman County Highlight.

The Bulldogs (11-1, 4-0) and Tekoa-Oakesdale remain unbeaten in league, with the Falcons (10-1, 3-1) a game back.

Liberty’s girls (10-1, 7-0) lead the Bi-County League by two games. Curlew (10-1, 6-0) and St. George’s (6-5, 5-1) are atop their Panorama League divisions.

GSL wrestlers score

A dozen Greater Spokane League wrestlers reached the finals of last weekend’s Pacific Northwest Classic tournament at University.

Team honors went to Moses Lake by 5.5 points over Class 1A Lakeside and 12.5 over the host Titans.

Lakeside had two champions and three second-place finishers including Reid Chivers, who grew up in the district, but moved to Bellingham last year where he finished fourth in 3A state as a freshman.

Chivers was beaten by 3A state runnerup Clete Hanson of East Valley, 4-1 in the 171-pound final.

Other GSL champions included tourney outstanding wrestler Brian Owen at 125 and Elliott Nay at 140 for U-Hi, Jon Healy, Gonzaga Prep (145) and Noah Hatton, Mt. Spokane (152).

Jacob Lauderdale (112), a transfer state placer from Reardan, and Kyle Johnson (130), a two-time state runnerup, were Lakeside’s champs.