Blackhawks fall, finish in 7th place
TACOMA – The tears were flowing freely in the Cheney Blackhawks’ locker room on the heels of their final game of the season.
But they weren’t tears of disappointment brought on by a 41-36 loss to Lynden in Saturday afternoon’s consolation final at the State 2A boys basketball tournament at the Tacoma Dome.
Lynden wrapped up a fourth-place trophy, while Cheney – after not placing at state since 2001 – took home a seventh-place trophy.
“I told them if there are tears, they need to be tears because they aren’t going to be able to play together again,” Cheney coach Ryan Fitzgerald said. “(Seventh place) is nothing that they should be disappointed in. They need to hold their heads high for what they accomplished. It’s really incredible.”
Seventh place is the best finish for Cheney at state since 1997, when it competed as a 3A school and lost in the finals to O’Dea.
“The seniors are all sad that it’s over, but we’re happy even though we’re crying,” said senior Brandon Hardie of teammates Tyler Schmidt, Drew Peterson, David Sigley, Canton Oyoloker and Griffin Jones.
Things looked promising for the Blackhawks early, as they outrebounded the Lions 19-9 in the first half and took a 20-19 lead into the locker room after Jones’ putback with 24 seconds left.
But the fatigue of playing four games in four days started to show in the second half for Cheney.
“Playing all week gets tiring, but we tried to find it in our heart to keep going,” Hardie said.
After Hardie’s 3-pointer tied the score at 23 with 6 minutes, 42 seconds left in the third, Lynden (19-8) went on a 12-2 run to close the quarter and grab a 35-25 lead.
“It was a typical game four of a tournament – the legs are tired, the whole body is tired,” Fitzgerald said. “We were down 10 and we could have packed it in, but as they have all year they kept fighting.”
Cheney cut the deficit to 38-36 with 1:33 left on a Jones layup. The Blackhawks had a chance to tie the score at 38 with 30 seconds left, but DeAngelo Jones missed a baseline runner and Lynden grabbed the rebound before immediately being fouled.
The Lions made enough free throws (10 of 17 in the second half) down the stretch to hold on.
Lynden shot 5 of 13 from 3-point range and got solid contributions from Adam DeLange (13 points, eight rebounds) and Brady Bomber (10 points). Jones scored a team-high 12 points and Hardie added nine for the Blackhawks.
“These six seniors really accomplished something,” Fitzgerald said. “For this group to come here and bring home a trophy… that’s what they wanted to do. You’re talking about winning two loser-out games in the last week and a half. This is something they will always remember and I’m so proud of this group.”
Cheney finished the season 18-9.
Ephrata 58, Burlington-Edison 56: Kolby Arendse’s tip-in attempt hung on the rim and fell off at the buzzer, giving Ephrata (25-2) a win over Burlington-Edison (24-3) and the boys title.