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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Prep Watch: Area teams bring season to thrilling finish

NC gets ‘er done

As Roosevelt girls coach Bill Resler said, tongue-in-cheek, at the State 4A, the Greater Spokane League must play pretty good basketball. What does it say when the first-place team in league wins State 4A by going unbeaten and the last-place team finishes third in 3A?

North Central (11-18) completed a 7-2 run through the playoffs, beating Southridge 47-39 to finish third in the State 3A Saturday night at Bank of America Arena at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Heroes were myriad from DJ Scott‘s three 3-pointers off the bench in the first half (among eight total by the Indians), to Nick Rijon‘s 13 second-half points, to the 10 points and key free-throw shooting by Cody Hauenstein, the eight points by Boone Plager and to the nine defensive rebounds by Justin Anderson, eight late in the game to deny Southridge second-chance shots.

What a wonderous conclusion to a great year by GSL teams. Ferris boys go 29-0, Lewis and Clark, University and Mead girls finish first, second and fourth, NC boys are third and East Valley girls, in their first state appearance ever, went 1-2, the second loss by a scant point to deny them a trophy.

All told the teams went 18-5 at state and brought home five top-four trophies.

Pretty amazing.

More on NC

Greetings from Bellevue where the streets are overrun and restaurants inundated by 3,000 high school DECA students vying for state honors in the school business organization.

Ten minutes away, at the University of Washington’s Bank of America Arena, North Central defied the odds by playing in the State 3A boys basketball semifinals, surprising and delighting watchers and followers alike.

Unfortunately the dream of reaching the state finals and making this latest state journey a Hoosiers-like movie script, ended Friday night. But this team could still bring home third place.

“It’s been fun,” said season scoring leader Nick Rijon. “We knew the team could do it when we have faith in each other.”

One of the questions posed to both Rijon and coach Jay Webber was which team was better, (3A second-place) Bainbridge with Gonzaga University-bound 6-4 guard Steven Gray, or State 4A unbeaten champion Ferris.

Both picked the Saxons. I had to agree. Ferris had better size and athleticism inside, seemed quicker, had more depth and offensively was more versatile.

Elsewhere at state

East Valley’s girls were beaten in their 3A state opener, although they rebounded for their first state victory, 48-47 victory over Kennedy.

EV’s girls led Hudson’s Bay, coached by former Ferris mentor Art Rojas, by eight points in the first half but were outscored 34-8 in the second half and lost 49-31. It’s the first state trip for either school.

The Knights’ Ashley Grater finished second among tournament rebounders with a 13.3 average and scored 10 points in seven games during post-season. Her stepsister, Kylee Williamson, led Knight scorers and averaged 12 overall in the playoffs.)

Small world department

You’d have to go back some to remember Gail Pintler. The Edmonds-Woodway interim coach had his first state qualifying team 29 years ago. He was asked by parents this year to take over the Warriors.

“I’m a retire/rehire,” the youthful looking Pintler said. “The interim tag means I can coach as long as I want to.”

Pintler is a 1962 Central Valley graduate and former Bears athlete. I ran into him again in 1978, when he coached Shorewood to state and beat West Valley for third and sixth places. And here he was coaching at the 4A tournament in Tacoma in 2007.

Adding to that old six degrees of separation moment, the Warriors season ended against Snohomish, which is coached by former University coach Len Bone, and finished fifth.

Pintler, with his shock of fiery red hair, hasn’t aged. He looks much the same as he did nearly 30 years ago at Shorewood. He said he’s committed to coach Edmonds-Woodway for at least another year.

“Remember that first year (in 1978) and I said I’d be back?” Pintler told me. “I’ll be back (at state) next year.”