Grandview ends West Valley’s brief appearance

TACOMA – For a program accustomed to postseason success, West Valley’s sudden departure from the State 2A boys basketball tournament Thursday was a reminder of how hard it is to win against Washington’s best.

The Eagles, who placed eighth and fourth, respectively, in the past two State 3A tourneys, will have to let this year’s vacancy in the trophy case motivate them for next season after a 62-58 defeat to the run-and-gun Greyhounds of Grandview.

Bryan Peterson’s 19 points and 10 rebounds led WV, which also got 10 points apiece from Jordan Lupfer-Graham, Parker Flynn and reserve Glenn Akers, playing in his first season of organized basketball.

But it was a frustrating loss for the Eagles (19-5), who held advantages in rebounds (45-34), forced 23 Greyhounds turnovers, outscored Grandview’s bench 13-1 and took 31 more shots.

That wasn’t enough to overcome the Greyhounds (22-4), who were paced by the 19 points from point guard C.J. Lopez and 16 points from A.J. Valencia.

Lopez and Valencia helped sparked a key 3-minute stretch in the second quarter with back-to-back 3-pointers to turn a 21-20 WV lead – its last – into a 30-21 deficit.

“They come down and hit some shots, and we miss some, and then we missed some key free throws to get back into the game,” said Eagles coach Jamie Nilles. “The one thing that we can kind of live with is that we competed for 32 minutes after yesterday, when I thought we kind of rolled over a little bit.”

Instead of rolling over, the Eagles refused to die. The deficit to Grandview grew to as many as 10 points, but WV fought back behind reserve center Maverick Counts, whose putback made it a 40-37 game early in the fourth period.

The Greyhounds pushed their lead to 53-39 with 6:10 left in the game, but WV refused to quit.

“We just said, ‘This is how we play,’ ” Nilles said. “We wanted to run with them.”

Flynn keyed the comeback with two baskets around two Lopez free throws and Lupfer-Graham, who kept firing despite of a 3-for-17 performance, hit a 3-pointer to make it 56-46 with 2:07 to go.

“I wasn’t going to tell him to stop shooting,” Nilles said.

Lupfer-Graham hit another 3-pointer to make it 58-53 with 1:05 to go. Forced to foul, the Eagles sent the Greyhounds to the line and Grandview responded hitting 5 of 8 down the stretch.

Fife 65, Clarkston 59: Any hopes of a winning season went away after the Bantams (12-14) blew a 16-point lead in the first half then wilted late as the Trojans (10-17) rallied.

Don Perconti connected on six 3-pointers en route to a game-high 21 points and Cary Conklin chipped in 16 to pace Clarkston, which went 1-19 last year.

Cold shooting hampered the Bantams in the second half. After hitting 11 of 22 from the floor in the first half, Clarkston shot 5 for 21 in the second half.

The teams were tied four times in the final quarter, the last coming at 59-all on Perconti’s last 3-pointer with 1:15 left in the game. Fife grabbed the lead for good when Austin Lubereski, who led Fife with 16 points, drove past Brian O’Kelley for the go-ahead layup with a minute to go.