Task too big for Cheney

TACOMA – The Cheney Blackhawks knew exactly what they were up against in the Burlington-Edison big man duo of Jake Anderson and Kolby Arendse.

Finding a solution for stopping the duo turned out to be a different story.

The 6-foot-6 Anderson and the 6-3 Arendse combined to score 38 points and lead the Tigers to a 62-51 victory over Cheney on Thursday night at the State 2A boys basketball championships at the Tacoma Dome, sending the Blackhawks into the consolation bracket.

The loss completed a sweep of the three boys Great Northern League teams in Thursday’s play as Clarkston fell to Mark Morris 67-63 and Sehome defeated West Valley 49-39.

The teams played nearly identical first halves and the Tigers took a 27-25 halftime lead on a basket with less than 20 seconds left. Despite committing 15 turnovers, Cheney kept things close and held the duo to just 11 points.

But the second half was a different story as Burlington-Edison (23-2) went on an 11-4 run over the final 5 minutes of the third quarter.

Anderson (21 points, seven rebounds) punctuated the run with a hard drive down the lane, finishing with a one-handed dunk to give the Tigers a 44-36 lead after three. The Blackhawks (17-8) never got closer than eight points.

“We were trying to keep things changed up so they wouldn’t get too comfortable with what we were throwing at them,” Cheney coach Ryan Fitzgerald said. “Those guys are a dangerous duo and sometimes even if you change things up and have a game plan, sometimes they can still work together to overcome that.”

Blackhawks big man Griffin Jones did an admirable job switching off guarding the two. He also scored a team-high 18 points.

“(The big guys) are pretty good,” said Jones, who also grabbed nine rebounds. “We just lost our confidence somewhere in the third quarter and had trouble getting it back.”

Cheney also struggled to get a big score from long range in the second half to help close the gap, shooting 2 of 11 from 3-point range, and finishing 4 of 18 for the game.

“We still have a chance to win and place and we’re excited to be able to do that,” Jones said.

Mark Morris 67, Clarkston 53:

Down by 19 points after three quarters, the Bantams (17-7) put together a late rally to cut the Mark Morris lead to 60-53 with 1:33 left, but couldn’t get over the hump.

“I wish that we could have put the pressure on them a little earlier,” Clarkston coach Brendan Johnson said. “But the effort our guys gave in that second half was amazing. They’re really a group of resilient kids and they fought their way back into it. “

Clarkston forced 13 turnovers in the second half to get back into the game, but the Bantams’ shooting woes (29 percent from the field for the game) sealed their fate.

“You have to make shots … especially free throws and layins,” Johnson said.

Dustin McConnell led Clarkston with 17 points.

Jeray Key scored a game-high 23 points to lead Mark Morris (23-3), and big men Matt Trautman (10 points) and Eric Hutchison (13 points, 11 rebounds) gave the Bantams fits inside.

Sehome 49, West Valley 39: The Eagles shot just 34 percent from the field for the game, including a dismal 1 of 18 from 3-point range in falling to Sehome (13-14) in a loser-out game.

West Valley (15-10) put itself in a 26-13 hole at halftime after being held to single digits in each of the first two quarters. Despite cutting Sehome’s lead to 34-27 after three, the Eagles got no closer.

Junior guard Jordan Lupfer-Graham led the Eagles with 16 points, but shot just 7 of 19 from the field and hit just 1 of his 10 attempts from 3-point range.