Shaky Game For Gar-Pal Still A Victory

Southeast B

Garfield-Palouse blew a 15-point third-quarter lead and survived what Coach Tim Coles called its worst performance of the season Wednesday night to slip past Asotin 49-47 in the second round of the Southeast District B Boys Basketball Tournament at Washington State’s Friel Court.

The win pushed the Vikings (21-2) into Friday night’s championship game against the Dayton Bulldogs (23-1), who received 22 points and 17 rebounds from Will Hutchens in a 60-44 romp past Lacrosse-Washtucna in Wednesday’s first winners bracket game.

“I’ve got a crystal ball,” Coles said after his team’s tentative effort against Asotin. “I can see what’s going to happen if we play that way against the Bulldogs, and it’s not going to be pretty.”

In Wednesday’s loser-out games, Waitsburg clubbed Touchet 64-37 and Colton beat Pomeroy 63-55.

That means Asotin (14-10) and Waitsburg (12-12) will play a loser-out game at 1:30 p.m. today, with Lacrosse-Washtucna (14-10) and Colton battling for survival at 7:30. The girls also move into Friel Court today for loser-out games at 12 noon and 6 p.m.

Garfield-Palouse 49, Asotin 47

The Vikings, after fighting through a horrible first quarter, managed to hold onto the lead they had built when a 10-foot baseline jumper by Asotin’s Aaron Erickson caught all kinds of iron but bounced away as the final buzzer sounded.

Gar-Pal’s Whitman County League champions shot poorly all night but feasted on Asotin’s foul problems.

With Panthers center Jason Butler on the bench with four fouls and Beau Hilty-Jones warming up from the perimeter, the Vikings went on a 17-6 run that put them up 44-29 with just over a minute remaining in the third period.

But Butler’s return at the quarter break and Gar-Pal’s hesitancy on offense helped ignite a nine-point Panthers run that tightened things up considerably.

Asotin, which got 17 points from Russ Farmer and 12 from Rob Teasley, cut the Vikings’ lead to two points on a putback by Neil West with just 20 seconds left. Then, Asotin trapped Gar-Pal’s Rob Tiegs following the inbounds pass and forced a turnover.

The Panthers worked the ball around for the final 20 seconds and ended up getting a great baseline look for Erickson, who hit both the front and back of the rim but couldn’t get the ball to fall.

“We were going to go with the first shot we got,” Panthers coach Dick Ruark said of his late-game strategy. “As it turned out, it just happened to be the last shot. Our kids showed some heart. I could be happier - if we had won. But I couldn’t be prouder.” “We normally play to win,” he explained, “but tonight we played not to lose. You could see it in their eyes. We were standing around waiting to get beat. We kind of froze. “We were lucky to survive that.”

Hilty-Jones, after a scoreless first quarter, finished with 22 points for Gar-Pal. However, senior guard Steve Cofield did not take a shot.

Garfield-Palouse 6 19 19 5 - 49 Asotin 10 12 12 13 - 47

GARFIELD-PALOUSE Lawton 5, Hill 2, Hilty-Jones 22, Colfield 2, Fox 4, Tiegs 13, Thurston 1.

ASOTIN Thompson 0, Appleford 0, Broenneke 0, Way 0, West 2, R.Farmer 17, Teasley 12, Erickson 9, Butler 7.

Dayton 60, Lacrosse-Washtucna 44

When asked afterward to reflect on the reasons behind his team’s loss, Tigercats coach Kermit Wigen could come up with only one.

“Will Hutchens,” he said.

Hutchens, Dayton’s 6-foot-3 senior forward, took control from the start, scoring nearly every time he touched the ball inside and pulling down every important rebound.

“He killed us on the boards,” Wigen said of Hutchens, after losing to Dayton for the third time this season. “And how many of those rebounds) were for points. Most of them were offensive, that’s the worst part.”

Dayton coach Jay Webber called it a typical performance by Hutchens, who led his team to its 23rd win in a row following a season-opening loss to Reardan.

“He’s a whale of a ballplayer,” Webber said. “He always comes up big in big games.” “Fifteen points in a half is phenomenal in a game of this magnitude,” he said. “If we continue to play defense like that, we’re going to be O.K.”

Dayton 14 18 13 15 - 60 L-W 7 8 12 17 - 44

DAYTON Lyonnais 3, C.Hutchens 5, Rundell 6, Skidmore 0, Steinhoff 0, Skeeter 12, W.Hutchens 22, Gembala 2, Talbott 2, Carlton 0, Hubbard 8.

LACROSSE-WASHTUCNA Nealey 3, Swenson 1, Henley 0, Ledbetter 6, Bryan 0, Wigen 4, Daniel 3, Goll 11, Kinch 6, Rouleau 10, Bay 0, Whitman 0.

Colton 63, Pomeroy 55

Nick Bates tossed in 15 points as the Wildcats (12-12) ousted the Pirates (11-13).

Pomeroy 17 9 23 6 - 55 Colton 14 24 11 14 - 63

POMEROY McCabe 7, Kelly 2, Gwinn 10, Cassetto 16, Cox 2, Klaveano 1, Cox 7, VanVogt 0, Kimble 8, Boyer 0, Fruh 2.

COLTON Merk 0, Bates 15, McArthur 7, Wallace 13, Busch 14, BeLieu 9, Moss 2, Cuellar 3.

Waitsburg 64, Touchet 37

Robert Hinchliffe scored 22 points as the Cardinals (12-12) knocked the Indians (14-11) out of the playoffs.

Waitsburg 14 11 21 18 - 64 Touchet 16 10 8 3 - 37

WAITSBURG Hinchliffe 22, C.Pearson 2, Reser 13, Wilde 0, Riggs 2, Erikson 9, Wyatt 6, Abbey 2, Shollenberger 2, J.Pearson 2, Largent 4.

TOUCHET Trejo 7, Boualapha 3, Nolan 0, Adams 5, Brinkley 6, Clarke 0, Ford 0, Espinoza 0, Bussell 7, Carlisle 0, Bingham 7, Gosney 2.