District 8 4A boys: Lewis and Clark hangs on to reach regionals

Naje Smith scored 18 points, Jonny Love added 14 and Lewis and Clark (16-8) eliminated Walla Walla (15-9) 57-51 in the District 8 4A third-place game at the Spokane Arena on Friday to earn a trip to the regional round of state.

Lewis and Clark led 33-24 at intermission, but Walla Walla’s Tyler Greene hit consecutive 3-pointers early in the fourth and the Devils tied it at 49 with just over 2 minutes to go.

LC’s Xavier Guillory made both ends of a 1-and-1 and Griffin Effenberger’s runner made it a four-point game with 40 seconds left. Love made a pair with 19.5 seconds left to seal it.

“We missed a lot of bunnies tonight but to their credit they came back roaring,” LC coach Jim Redmon said. “I thought Griff’s power layup (at the end) really gave us a teeny bit of separation that allowed us to make a couple other plays happen.”

Effenberger ended up with 12 points.

Taylor Hamada led Walla Walla with 19 points and Greene finished with 15.