Defense dazzles

He acknowledged the cliché, but Northwest Christian’s Karl Richardson added a team-specific twist.

“Defense wins championships,” he said after NWC beat Republic 54-48 in the boys State B basketball championship at the Arena. “Because it definitely wasn’t our offense.”

Maybe the surprise was that the offense did show up Saturday night, as after the Crusaders averaged 39.7 points in their first three wins, they shot 46.9 percent from the field in the win.

Richardson finished 7 for 11 from the field for 15 points.

NWC (27-3) also got 23 points from freshman Chase Ramey, who has been sick the past couple of days, during which he scored six points in the Crusaders’ second and third games.

“I’ve been struggling, and it just came together tonight,” Ramey said. “It was perfect timing. We played great defense, but this time we had the offense to go with it.”

Ramey was perfect from the line, too, as it’s not often a freshman goes 12 for 12 from the line in the fourth quarter and 14 for 14 overall.

“I think the bigger the pressure on the games, the more he steps up,” NWC head coach Ray Ricks said. “It’s going to be fun to watch his career take off.”

This isn’t to short-change NWC’s defensive effort, as again, that was what won them the game.

Republic (26-4) came in averaging 69.7 points during the tournament, but had 18 points through three quarters, shooting 6 for 31 (19.4 percent) from the field without a 3-pointer.

Credit went primarily to Derek Iranon, given the task of guarding Derek Gianukakis, and Joe Grewe, who shadowed Derek’s brother, Zach.

The brothers, who had averaged a combined 51.3 a game in the tourney, were held to 26 points on 7-of-30 shooting.

“It was Derek and Joe on the Gianukakis boys, right there,” Ramey said. “That was the whole game plan right there. We wanted to keep Derek off the boards and putbacks and Zach off the perimeter shots.”

With this being the Tigers’ seventh game in nine days – not recommended for a team that rarely substituted – they didn’t have their shooting legs early and fell behind as many as 15 in the third quarter.

That meant that their frantic fourth-quarter rally, hitting six 3-pointers in the final quarter, wouldn’t be enough.

“We were just worn out – that was a lot of ball,” Republic head coach John Gianukakis said. “We thought we might have it. I’d like another chance on a fresh night, to be honest with you. They just ‘out-physicaled’ us in the first half.”

NWC also held a 31-24 advantage on the boards, with Richardson pulling down seven and Ramey five.

In 2004, NWC finished second at the 1A tournament, then placed third in Spokane last year.

“I wasn’t worried that we were going to lose,” said Richardson, who played on all three teams. “I was just worried we wouldn’t play as good as we could, but we’re just thankful to play a team like Republic. Those guys are amazing.”

Zach Gianukakis was named tournament MVP, averaging 26.5 points a game, elevating him to eighth on the all-time state B scoring list, with 252 points in 12 games, during which the Tigers went 10-2.