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

Casto leads Ferris

The message was simple: Slow down, you’re moving too fast.

It took DeAngelo Casto a while to shift down but once he did Ferris shifted into high gear and rolled past Shadle Park 69-49 in the District 8 4A basketball championship game at Central Valley Friday night.

Casto didn’t score until he corralled a lucky carom off the backboard midway through the second quarter, and from there he was unstoppable, scoring 19 points and grabbing 15 rebounds as the Saxons (22-0) earned the top seed into next week’s regional and ran their winning streak to 51 games.

“Coach wanted us to come out with energy,” Casto said. “I came out with energy but I was too excited and they did a good job of fronting me. In the second half I slowed down and got my baby hook going.”

Until Casto got going the game was shaping up like the barnburners the teams played in the regular season.

Shadle (19-3) led 16-15 after one quarter and the game was tied at 22 when a deflected pass hit the backboard and shot to Casto in the lane for an easy bucket. That ignited the Saxons, who led 37-28 at the half.

“It got away from us in the second quarter,” Highlanders coach Tim Gaebe said. “They got a couple of transition baskets and we didn’t block people out.”

The teams played evenly in the third quarter and then the Saxons scored the first 14 points of the fourth quarter to put the game away.

“De had a better game,” Saxons coach Don VanLierop said. “We didn’t have him the first time and the second time he had an average game. He didn’t get off to a great start tonight. That’s an experienced, good player who can adjust his game in the middle of the game.”

With Casto struggling, Jared Karstetter made sure the Saxons didn’t get left in the starting blocks. He had 17 of his 22 points in the first half.

Meanwhile, Robby Douglas, who led Shadle with 14 points, only had two in the second half and Zach Humphrey, battling illness, never got untracked, hitting just one early 3.

“We didn’t shoot the ball well this time and they did a good job on Zach,” Gaebe said. “It was just a matter of our decision-making, getting back on defense and blocking out. You’ve got to give them credit. They’re big, fast and strong and they play hard.”

The Highlanders shot less than 40 percent and got pounded 39-19 on the boards.

University 67, Central Valley 57: The third time was a charm for the Titans (10-13), who hit 10 of 19 3-pointers, including 6 of 9 in building an 18-point halftime lead, to beat the Bears (11-13) for the first time in three tries in the game to determine the third and fourth seeds to regional.

Mason Johnson had three of his four 3-pointers in the first half en route to 20 points and Ryan Dixon had nine of his 11 in the second quarter as U-Hi took a 40-22 lead. Andrew Pirttima had three 3s and 17 points.

William Davis had four of CV’s nine 3s and 20 points.