Sasquatch settle for seconds

KENNEWICK – When all the ceremony was done, and the Sasquatch men were handed their trophy, they all walked into a curtained-off area under the bleachers – and cried.

They had lost.

A 30-win season cut short. A loss – only their second – when a win was needed most. The NWAACC championship trophy in the hands of Yakima Valley Community College, thanks to a 66-65 victory Sunday for the Yaks.

All the Sasquatch had was a glass second-place memento and a lot of memories.

Sunday’s loss was a surprise, to say the least, to the Community Colleges of Spokane men’s basketball team. The Sasquatch, a top seed and ranked No. 1 throughout the season, had gone into the championship game expecting to win.

“The great thing about these kids is they’ve expected to win every single time they’ve laced them up this year,” CCS head coach Mike Burns said. “And that’s why they’ve had the season that they’ve had.

“And these guys aren’t as upset about winning and losing as they are about it ending for this team. … You know, a lot of teams call themselves a family, but this team is truly a family.”

That’s how they had played throughout the entire NWAACC tournament at the Toyota Center. They anticipated each other’s moves and just plain executed. In their semifinal game, the Sasquatch tallied 20 assists. Against the Yaks, they made just seven.

Yakima Valley (25-7 overall) brought something it hadn’t to the first two games the teams met – the results of which were decidedly different. According to Yaks head coach Ray Funk, it was heart.

“It’s kind of a shock,” CCS’s emotionally drained Jordan Gregg said. “I don’t know. I don’t know what happened.”

Spokane charged out of its 37-31 halftime deficit in the first five minutes of the second half, opening on a 14-4 run that gave the Sasquatch a four-point lead.

But that would be their largest lead, and in the last six minutes neither team was more than three points behind.

Down 66-65 with 35 seconds remaining, Matthew Dorr drove the ball to the rim, but was whistled for a charge for his fifth foul. (He committed all five fouls in the final seven minutes of the game.)On the Yaks’ inbounds play, however, Gregg stole the long pass and put his team in position to have the last possession. Burns called timeout with 16.3 seconds to play to work up a scheme.

The plan was to get the ball to Jon Clift, who scored a team-high 18 points. On the inbounds play, Clift drove to the basket and attempted a lay-up. Miss. He grabbed the rebound and tried again. Nothing.

And the clock hit zero.

For Spokane, forward Robert Lippman – named the men’s tournament’s most inspirational player – had 14 points. The Sasquatch shot 40.4 percent in the game, including 0 for 5 from the perimeter in the second half.

Gregg, who had six points, was named to the tournament first team and Dorr, who added nine, made the second.

“I just told them I’m extremely proud of them,” Burns said of his team. “And I’d rather lose a close one like this 1,000 times than win with any other team. They’re as good a basketball team as they are – they’re better young men.”