Shadle finding success

It may not be the biggest win in Chad Dezellem‘s girls basketball coaching tenure at Shadle Park. He recalled 2000 when the sixth-place Highlanders beat regular-season champion Mead twice, in district and regional, to qualify for state.

“But this is certainly right up there,” Dezellem said.

In case you missed it, fourth-place Shadle (12-4) upset Greater Spokane League unbeaten Lewis and Clark (15-1) 54-45 Friday on the road.

The players did it, he said, by trading LC’s pressure and transition baskets for enough of their own to gain a relative push. And they maintained their poise after blowing a first-half lead and falling behind.

“We were ahead by about 7 or 8 points, then had a stretch where we didn’t take care of the ball,” Dezellem said. “They got ahead by at least eight in the second half. We could have folded it there, but the kids just kept playing.”

Shadle played half-court defense, didn’t foul and didn’t allow easy shots by making the Tigers shoot over the top of a Highlander.

“We just kept playing hard and the defense kept us in,” Dezellem said.

Once the Highlanders got ahead and LC was forced to foul, Shadle was perfect from the free-throw line.

“When you have the two Lexi(e)s (Lexi Bishop and Lexie Pettersen) you have a chance,” said Dezellem. “And the other kids are doing the little things – rebounds, assists and steals – to fill up the stat sheet.”

One, Lindsay Niemeier, has been defending the opposition’s best player, he said, and has become an offensive threat from outside.

Shadle is at third-place Mead (13-3), 7 p.m. on Tuesday in another important road game with a chance to tie the Panthers in the standings.

Streaking Bullpups

On Jan. 5 a losing streak by Gonzaga Prep’s boys basketball team that had reached three games after a 78-72 setback to Rogers left them 5-5 in the Greater Spokane League.

“We were playing a little selfish for a while,” said guard Kevin Kunz. “We decided to play as a team and when you play as a team you can beat anybody.”

The Bullpups haven’t lost since. Including overtime victories over Shadle Park and Central Valley last week, Gonzaga is now 11-5, within a game of second-place Shadle Park and Mead.

Much of the reason that the Bullpups had struggled, said coach Mike Haugen, was that when the football players hit the floor, they hadn’t had time to lay down a basketball foundation.

“We just made a commitment to get back to fundamentals, play hard and execute,” he said.

This is a big week for the Bullpups. Tuesday, they play Ferris (16-0) at 5:30 p.m., Thursday it’s Mead (12-4) at 7 and Friday Mt. Spokane (7-8) at 5:30. All games are at home to conclude a stretch of five straight in Gonzaga’s gym.

Also on Tuesday, Shadle is at Mead in a game to break their second-place tie. And there are two games at Shaw this week with district playoff implications when Lewis and Clark on Tuesday and University on Friday play Rogers.

When is a tie not a tie?

When it’s in wrestling. West Valley and Colville wrestling teams deadlocked 36-all on Jan. 18, but longtime referee Rich Tschirgi has pointed out that it cannot be.

Although the schools were inclined to keep the tie, Rule 9.22 of the National High School Federation wrestling rulebook expressly prohibits it, he explained.

The rule states that in the event that dual match teams have identical scores, a tiebreaker system will determine the winner. The rule then sets out 14 separate criteria for breaking the tie. And if none of the criteria can do so, the referee settles it by flipping that colored disk he used to determine team and wrestler match or round choice.

The week that was

Colfax opened ground in Northeast A League basketball when the boys (14-3, 6-1) and girls (15-2, 7-0) both beat visiting Freeman. The Scotties boys (12-5, 5-2) fell into a second-place tie with Chewelah, a game back. The girls (13-4, 5-2) trail the Bulldogs by two games with three to play.

•Central Valley and Riverside won their respective GSL and Great Northern League wrestling titles. Wrestlers begin post-season Friday and Saturday with district and sub-regional meets.

•Bi-County basketball ends tomorrow, including first-place Northwest Christian boys at second-place Liberty; Panorama and Whitman County play ends on the weekend with district competition beginning next week.

•Mead clinched the GSL gymnastics title 166.2 to 165.975 over University during Saturday’s all-league meet. Regional is Feb. 10.