Golden Throne: West Valley sweeps games; East Valley girls end rough season on high note
It’s been a tough year for everyone in high school sports. It’s been especially tough for the East Valley girls team, which had nine girls turn out this season for the entire program.
Add in COVID, injuries and transfers, and the Knights limped to the end of the season having to cancel several games and constantly wondering if they’d have enough to practice, let alone play.
So when the Greater Spokane League spirit games were pushed back from mid-January to this week, it allowed the Knights’ Golden Throne rivalry games with West Valley to “upgrade” from a game in a home gym to the Spokane Arena on Wednesday with the rest of the traditional slate of games.
It gave West Valley a chance to play in the big arena before districts next week and gave East Valley a chance to end the season on a high note despite the results of the game on the court.
Girls
West Valley 62, East Valley 22: Chloe DeHaro scored 17 points and the Eagles (17-2, 9-0), ranked fifth in 2A by state media, topped the Knights (0-17, 0-9) in the early game.
Aliyah Henry hit four 3-pointers and scored 14 points and Madison Carr added 12 for West Valley.
“It was great to experience a bigger crowd and a bigger arena to get ready for districts,” DeHaro said.
“This was important because we’ll play here (in districts),” West Valley coach Rick Jones said. “It gives us a chance to kind of get acclimated, we know where the locker rooms are and those things. So this is big. Plus our seniors didn’t get a spirit game last year, so this makes it nice to you know, to have that opportunity.”
Senior guard Ellie Syverson, back from a hand injury, paced East Valley with 14 points, nine in the first quarter. The Knights dressed seven for the contest and started two ninth-graders.
“She’s a great kid and a great, great player,” East Valley coach Rob Collins said of Syverson. “She’s got a great attitude. And I wouldn’t trade her for the world.”
“That was a lot of fun, for sure,” Syverson said. “It’s a rivalry game. So no matter the matchup, we just had to come out here and play our hardest just for the sake of the tradition.”
“It’s good for (the players),” Collins said. “The girls, they worked hard all year and we’ve tried to get a little bit better.
“We had some unfortunate things happen during the course of the year. You know, you’ve got teams that do a lot of (different) things and we work hard, we got a little bit better. It’s tough, but we’re happy to be here and West Valley, they’re a good team over there.”
Jones empathized with Collins and the Knights’ predicament.
“I told the girls, if we get to play, there’s no fast breaks and there’s no pressure. We’re gonna meet at half court. They’re trying to build their program back, the last thing you want to do is crush it. That’s not the idea.”
With a running clock in the fourth quarter, West Valley got senior foreign exchange student Janneke Jogens, in her first season playing basketball, into the game. She scored her first points of the season on a layup at the horn.
Boys
West Valley 70, East Valley 44: Turner Livingston scored 21 points, Grady Walker added 18 and Ben Fried had 15 and the Eagles (16-3, 7-2), ranked eighth in 2A by the state media poll, topped the Knights (7-12, 3-6) in the late game.
Livingston scored 10 points in the first quarter as the Eagles built a seven-point early lead. Walker took over in the second quarter with nine points.
John Austin’s 3 at the buzzer gave WV a 42-17 lead at halftime.
“Like everyone else, we’re better when we share the ball,” West Valley coach Jay Humphrey said.
Diezel Wilkinson led East Valley with 17 points.