Shooting hurts Scotties

YAKIMA – Freeman did everything the team that wins the game should do Thursday. Dominate rebounds. Stack up hustle points. Play defense. But in the end, an inability to hit shots doomed the Scotties and they were knocked into the losers’ bracket by Meridian, 56-48 in the boys State 1A basketball championship at the SunDome.

Freeman hit just 19 of 60 shots from the field and only 4 of 17 from beyond the 3-point stripe.

The Scotties (19-6) came too close to a moral victory for coach Bill Bland’s taste. But he was well past happy with his team’s effort.

“If you’re going to go down, go down playing as hard as you can. And we did that. Just look at the effort categories,” Bland said. “You have to credit Meridian. Not many teams shoot 50 percent against us and they did.”

The Trojans hit 52.8 percent of their shots, offsetting Freeman’s 38-28 advantage in rebounding.

Taylor Vold led Freeman in scoring for the second straight day with 19 points. Peter Heinen chipped in 12 and Cody Unfred added 10.

Lake Roosevelt 59, Burbank 26: Cade and Ty Egbert combined for 34 points as the Raiders (17-9) advanced to the consolation semifinals.

Cade Egbert had 18 and Ty Egbert 16 to pace the Raiders. The Raiders defense held the Coyotes to 17 percent shooting (9 of 52).

“We told our kids this morning that at the end of the day there will be only 12 schools playing 1A basketball and we needed to be one of those,” LR coach Brad Wilson said. “The kids bounced back well.”

Lakeside 40, Toledo 29: The Eagles (12-14) outlasted the Indians thanks to 13 points each from Ryan Gunderson and Jacob Erickson.

Lakeside outscored Toledo 25-12 in the second half after trailing by two points at halftime. The Eagles’ defense held Toledo to 0-for-16 shooting from beyond the 3-point stripe.