Injured Nilles wills West Valley to win

YAKIMA – When West Valley standout Shanique Nilles – her right knee wrapped in an ice pack – hobbled off the floor at halftime of her team’s game against Ellensburg in the girls State 2A basketball tournament quarterfinals, the only thing going through her mind was that her night wasn’t over.

In fact, it was really just beginning.

Playing on a badly bruised knee, Nilles gritted her way through 13 second-half minutes and dominated the fourth quarter, scoring eight of her 15 points as the Eagles advanced to the semifinals with a 35-28 win over Ellensburg.

West Valley (24-0) will play Prosser in the 9 p.m. semifinal.

“I was just afraid it was something I couldn’t play on,” Nilles said. “There was no way I was ready to sit and watch.”

The Eagles chances appeared to take a huge hit when the 6-foot Nilles departed the game with 1:49 left in the first period.

But after a change to a zone defense after Ellensburg had success against a man-to-man, the Eagles began to assert control. West Valley held Ellensburg to single-digit scoring in each of the final three periods.

Leading 23-20 entering the final period, West Valley opened up a 30-23 lead behind Nilles five points and closed out the scoring at the free-throw line.

River Ridge 59, Pullman 47: The Hawks made it back to the semifinals for the fourth time since 2005, handling the Greyhounds behind 16 points from Samira McDonald and 15 from Kelsey Russell, who had four of the Hawks five 3-pointers on the day.

Pullman (17-7) will play Eatonville at 12:30 for a spot in the fourth/seventh place matchup, in what coach Phil Morgan calls “a character game”. A trophy-day appearance would be Pullman’s seventh since 2000.

“Our goal is to play on the last day of the 2A season,” Morgan said. “We have to win to be able to do that.”

Jordan Levenseller and Shelby Cheslek had 16 points each for Pullman.

Clarkston 63, Tumwater 58: The Bantams got 27 points from KC McConnell to advance to today’s consolation semifinal, vanquishing the Thunderbirds.

Clarkston (12-13) will play East Valley (Yakima) at 9 a.m. today.