Mead girls overwhelm young Cheney; Panthers boys pull away in second half against Hermiston

There will be good days ahead for the Cheney girls basketball team. Saturday was not one of them, though.

The Blackhawks earned the Greater Spokane League’s fifth seed to the eight-team District 8 3A tournament, but that honor set up a date with Mead – the GSL’s top seed ranked No. 2 in 3A in the state media poll.

Cheney dresses just one senior and starts two sophomores.

What looked like a mismatch on paper played out on the court.

Mead’s starting sophomore, Teryn Garnder, scored 20 points – all but two in the first half – and the Panthers topped the Blackhawks 60-16 and advanced to a district semifinal on Tuesday.

Natalie Braun added 12 points for the Panthers (20-0), who will host Kennewick (10-11).

Cheney (7-14) falls into an elimination game Tuesday against Mt. Spokane (8-13), which fell to Kennewick 69-48.

“(Cheney) came out and they stayed with us a little bit on offense last time we played them with their zone,” Mead coach Quantae Anderson said. “So we really focused on being able to work through that. And our girls kind of took it personally.

“We came out and did a way better job of moving the ball than I felt like in that first game. And our bigs got a lot of touches tonight, which was helpful.”

“We just were able to run down the court and find our open girls,” Braun said. “I feel like this got us like hyped up and ready for future games – just working together and playing together as a team.”

The Panthers didn’t waste any time getting started. Braun scored two quick buckets inside and by the time Gardner hit her first 3, Mead led 24-2.

Mead overwhelmed the young Cheney squad on defense, Gardner scored 13 points in the quarter and Mead led 30-2 after one quarter.

“We definitely came out more strict and wanted to play solid defense,” Braun said. “No offensive rebounds for them and get every board, every 50-50 ball.”

“The best thing is that we have weapons and everyone knows about our outside game with Olivia (Moore) and Teryn, but we were able to take advantage of some of those mismatches inside.”

Anderson got a lot of players into the game in the second quarter, with Gardner directing traffic on the floor. Braun picked up a couple of baskets in the paint and Gardner’s 3-pointer late put the Panthers up 42-4 at halftime.

Anderson was just as happy with the smothering defensive as he was the offensive production.

“We made some adjustments because they leaked out on our press a couple of times (in the first meeting) and we made some adjustments to not allow that.”

Cheney scored the first five points of the second half on a layup by 6-foot junior post Shauna Elliott and a 3 from senior Megan Schuller.

Anderson barked at his players from the sideline and Cheney didn’t score again until 2 minutes left in the quarter.

“I just said (Cheney) scored more points in that little bit of time than they did the whole first half,” Anderson said. “We didn’t get back on defense on one. And then the other was we just got lazy on a close out.”

Haley Burns added a couple of inside buckets and Teayona Hoard’s layup just before the horn made it 54-14 entering the fourth quarter, triggering a running clock.

Boys

Mead 72, Hermiston 60: Ryan Mount scored 20 points, Zack Reighard added 12 and the Panthers (11-10), the GSL’s No. 2 seed in the 3A tourney, topped the visiting Bulldogs (4-19) in the late game.

Mead will travel to MCC top-seeded Kennewick in a semifinal on Tuesday. Hermiston will host University, which fell 78-59 to Kennewick, in a loser-out game.

Grant Olson led Hermiston with 24 points.

Up by just two at halftime, Mead coach Luke Jordan told his team to get back to basics.

“We told them to simplify things and take care of what we needed to take care of – which in the second half we finally started to do a little bit better,” he said.

Hermiston raced out to a 8-0 lead as Isaac Corey and Jayden Ramirez both hit early 3-pointers. Mead got it going on an 11-0 run and Kolby Bumpas’ putback at the horn put the Panthers up 13-9 after one quarter.

Zack Reighard hit a 3 from the right wing to give Mead a six-point lead with 2 minutes left in the second quarter, but two turnovers led to 5-0 spurt for Hermiston and the Panthers led 27-25 at halftime.

“We got out slow,” Mount said. But we just had to come out and just play our game and make the shots that we were shooting that weren’t falling in the first half.”

The teams came out slowly in the third quarter, but Mount hit a 3, then Reighard added a fastbreak layup and Mead led 53-40 entering the fourth quarter.

Mead’s Justin Sands ignited the crowd with a two-handed jam early in the fourth quarter to make it 58-44. Gardner’s 3 with 2½ minutes left made it a 20-point game.