Young SC boys look like squads of old

YAKIMA, Wash. — If this truly is a down year in Sunnyside Christian’s storied boys basketball program, that must have been somebody else in the SunDome on Wednesday night.

Somebody else raining in 3-pointers.

Somebody else playing lock-down defense.

And if the Knights really are too young to compete for a third consecutive Class 1B state championship, that must have been somebody else executing cool-headed, high-caliber basketball in Wednesday’s prime time slot.

“Honestly, two weeks ago, I didn’t know if we’d be here,” said coach Dean Wagenaar. “And tonight, I had no idea which outfit would show up.”

Sunnyside Christian showed up.

Despite their youth and previous struggles, the Knights upheld their proud tradition with a dominating 54-28 victory over Lummi that was every bit up to the standard of the last two years.

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“There was a comfort level coming in here, I know I felt it,” said senior Danny Van Boven, who had eight assists. “We came in 8-0 in this building and now we’re 9-0. It just feels right in here, and we didn’t have all the jitters. We played a great game.”

Not even jitters from freshman Trevor Wagenaar, who buried five of SC’s nine 3-pointers and was the game’s only double-digit scorer with 17 points. But considering the 15-year-old has been watching these games since his dad took over the program, perhaps it’s not surprising.

“I’ve been on the sidelines all these years just waiting for a chance to play,” said the 6-foot-1 forward. “I was so excited to play, but I didn’t expect this. I’ve had some games when I’ve hit a few 3s, but I’ve never been on fire like this.”

It was contagious.

Two of Wagenaar’s treys came during a game-busting 17-0 run in the third period, a streak that saw the Knights score on seven of eight possessions.

“We told the kids to expect them to put four in the lane. They had to because of our height advantage,” the coach said. “So we’ve got to hit a few outside shots to loosen things up. The kids really came through with that. They know if Trevor gets an opportunity he’ll put it up.”

Lummi, which has only one player taller than 5-10, couldn’t shoot over the much taller Knights — who blocked five shots and altered numerous others — and couldn’t find open 3-pointers, making only 2 of 19. The Blackhawks shot 26.7 percent while being held to a season-low 28 points.

“We played good defense the whole game,” said Van Boven, who made two 3-pointers, “and we shot real well. We executed our plays and kept our cool.”

The timing of SC’s big third-quarter run was crucial since Lummi had just pitched in back-to-back 3-pointers to pull within 21-18 in the opening minute of the second half.

Sophomore Ryker Van Belle — last year’s championship hero — responded quickly for the Knights with one of the nine treys, a total that was two off the tournament record. Trouble appeared to be brewing when 6-5 Steven Broersma, one of SC’s six sophomores, picked up his third foul.

But the Knights kept charging without their big man as Wagenaar scored eight points and Van Belle chipped in five during the 17-0 surge.

With Broersma limited to 10 minutes because of fouls, Kevin De Jong — yet another sophomore — came off the bench to hit 3 of 3 shots and grab a game-high nine rebounds.

The Knights, who slipped over .500 with Wednesday’s win at 12-11, will play Cusick tonight at 9 in the final quarterfinal.

“We really settled down and played a nice second half,” Dean Wagenaar said. “I’m proud of the way they played. Maybe being here has something to do with it, who knows? Just getting here, it’s all gravy.”

Despite rout, SC coach sees room for improvement

YAKIMA, Wash. — After watching top-ranked Colton romp to a jaw-dropping 40-3 halftime lead before they headed to their SunDome locker room to prepare for their opening-round Class 1B state tournament game on Wednesday, the Sunnyside Christian Knights had something in mind:

To make a statement of their own.

“We wanted to come out and make a statement, to show we could play with anybody here,” senior forward Melanie Van Wingerden said.

In some ways, the Knights did just that in their 54-16 drubbing of Mary Knight, racing out to a 16-2 lead and getting everybody in their 12-player roster significant playing time.

“It’s nice to come out and play how you’re capable of playing,” guard Abby Bangs said. “So when other teams see that, they see what you can do and they know they’re not just going to be able to come out and run all over you.”

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So did Sunnyside Christian coach Al Smeenk consider his team’s performance the statement-making kind?

“Oh no,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t feel that way. We barely shot 30 percent (20-for-65 from the field). I’d hope … well, we’ve got to play better and shoot better than that. We played hard, but I’d like for us to play better.”

Certainly, the Knights will have to play better to beat fifth-ranked Columbia (Hunters), which rallied from 10 points down in the final 10 minutes to upend 19-1 Neah Bay, 41-39. And that should help keep the No. 4 Knights (18-5) from looking ahead to a possible semifinal showdown with Colton.

“We have to get there first,” said Van Wingerden, whose 18-point, 17-rebound, three-steal performance paced Sunnyside Christian against Mary Knight. “Columbia, they’re going to be tough to beat.”

The Knights’ depth could work in their favor against Columbia (Hunters), which used only seven players in its overtime victory over Neah Bay. Sunnyside Christian had eight in the scoring column and has had a regular 11-player rotation all year.

“That’s one nice thing about our team is our depth,” Van Wingerden said. “We’ve got Julie (Long), she’s our energizer coming off the bench, and when you can bring in somebody like Joleen (Van Wingerden) off the bench, that’s really good. With our first few players off the bench, it’s not really a drop from the ones who start.”

Joleen Van Wingerden finished with 10 points and seven rebounds for the Knights, while guards Bangs and Erika den Hoed harassed the Owl ballhandlers into 18 turnovers to just nine for the sure-handed Knights. Two Owls, Teryssa Toppano and Fayrene Arrington, combined to score all 16 points for Mary Knight (10-13), which shot just 5-for-33 from the field.

And although there is still today’s 5:30 p.m. quarterfinal between two ranked teams to get by, Sunnyside Christian is now one day, and one verty important victory, from the game against Colton so many 1B basketball fans are clamoring for. Although Smeenk has brought 15 teams to the state tournament and reached the championship game twice, the Knights have yet to bring home that biggest trophy of all.

That’s something they would like to change — though, to do so, they would probably have to upend the No. 4, No. 1 and No. 2 teams back-to-back-to-back.

“I know you’re not supposed to look ahead past anybody,” den Hoed said. “But in a way, you always look ahead to who you’re going to playing. And if your goal is to win the state championship, you can’t NOT look ahead.”

Yakima the latest stop on Bruins’ road trip

YAKIMA, Wash. — It’s a long way from their Olympic Peninsula home to Yakima, but by today the SunDome will feel just as much like home as anywhere else the Clallam Bay Bruins have been this year.

They’ve been a road team all year. And now they’ll be playing their second straight game in the Dome.

Without the use of their home gym, which is being rebuilt, the Bruins played all of their regular-season home games on the road at Crescent or Forks, each an hour’s drive away, or at Neah Bay, which takes 45 minutes on a narrow, winding road.

The Bruins had to practice in a local elementary school gymnasium with a court barely over half the length of a typical 84-foot-long high school court, and significantly narrower.

“The 3-point line is at the out-of-bounds line,” coach John Wilson said. “We didn’t practice with an out-of-bounds on the side because the walls were right there anyway.

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“Your scrimmages aren’t scrimmages. They’re halfcourt practices.”

Not only that, the practice court didn’t even have a hardwood floor; it’s a rubberized court atop a concrete base, and whenever it rained, a puddle would form in one corner. If the rain continued, the water spread over the playing surface, further limiting the playable room.

After doing all their preseason practices on their tiny court, the Bruins played their first game at Mount Rainier Lutheran. They told their coaches the court “looked like a football field.”

Imagine what the SunDome felt like, a pro-length, 94-foot court twice the length of their little practice gym.

“Running for a fast break here, you’d feel like you were already there and you wouldn’t even be to the 3-point line,” said senior Jesse Chartraw.

But running, in the end, is what did the Bruins in. There was no practicing the fast break on their little floor — “Our fast break’s about, oh, four steps,” Wilson noted — or dealing with the exhaustion of facing a fullcourt press. And with only a half-dozen players who play a lot, exhaustion hit hard. Although Clallam Bay owned a 27-13 lead early in the third quarter against Tri-Cities Prep, the Bruins’ legs were already gone.

“I was dead, especially handling the ball against the press,” point guard Zak Greene said.

“We don’t get much running done in our practices,” added Chartraw, whose 20 points (and 7-for-12 shooting) led the Bruins. “We do what we can, but when everybody gets really tired, nobody’s talking on the court. We weren’t playing with our heads by that third quarter, because everybody’s working so hard and you’re just beat.”

After dominating the first 2 1/2 quarters, Clallam Bay could only watch when the Jaguars got red-hot in the second half. Tri-Cities Prep guard Sergio Lopez, after shooting 1-for-9 in the first half, went 7-for-9 after halftime to finish with a game-high 23.

And even though the Bruins still led going into the final quarter, it was fairly obvious what was happening.

“You could see they had tired legs,” Wilson said. “We were missing a lot of shots we were making in the first half.”

Tri-Cities outscored the dog-tired Bruins 24-8 over the final eight minutes for an entirely misleading 53-39 final.

“All year, we’ve given up leads at the end,” Wilson sighed. “What can you do? You can’t get guys in condition running sideways.”

1B Notes: Two showdowns, one time

YAKIMA, Wash. — Every state tournament seems to feature some first-round matchup of semifinal-worthy teams that seems egregiously early for such high-caliber teams. They’re invariably the result of a district-tournament upset, or a particularly tough district with two title-contending teams. Or, in the case of this year’s 1B tourney, both.

Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. was a good time to sit high enough in the SunDome stands to watch both courts, because each featured the day’s most intriguing matchup. On the boys’ side, Moses Lake Christian — top-ranked, with the tourney’s best inside-outside punch with 6-foot-7 Riggs Yarbro (20.6 points per game) and 6-2 guard Adrian Moffet (20.1) — faced 20-1 Oakville, which had been upset in district play by Lake Quinault.

On the girls’ court, No. 2 Almira/Coulee-Hartline faced No. 3 St. John-Endicott, which came in as a second-seed simply because the Eagles have the misfortune of being in the same league and district as unbeaten No. 1 Colton.

The boys’ game remained interesting well into the third quarter — which began with a 10-0 Oakville run that put the Acorns up by four points — but then became the Yarbro Show. Yarbro, very athletic at his height and with excellent post moves and body control, shot 8-for-11 the rest of the way, scoring 19 of his game-high 29 points over the final 11:09 as the Lions rolled to a 62-51 triumph.

The girls’ game also remained intriguing for one half, only to see ACH then fall apart against SJE’s active defense. The Warriors opened the second half with a 3-pointer and then missed their next 17 shots, during which SJE ran off 16 unanswered points. And it actually went downhill from there, because after ACH’s drought-ending basket, the Warriors missed their next 10 in a row.

Wow: Colton and SJE in the same league. How tough was that league, huh?

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SCHEDULE CHANGES: This week’s 1B tournament and the two to follow over the next two weeks, the 1A and 2A, will each have a different Saturday schedule than previous state tourneys at the SunDome.

The starting time for the opening game of the day will be 8:30 a.m. rather than the normal 9 a.m. That will be for the first fifth-eighth game — which this year will be the girls, with the boys playing the late championship game in all three tourneys this year under the alternating-year format.

Friday’s schedule will also be different for the 1B and 1A tourneys (though not for the 2A). Friday’s openers will begin at 11 a.m. (instead of 9 a.m.), and the lost time will be made up during the boys’ and girls’ semifinals, which will be played simultaneously instead of one after the other.

SEEING IS BELIEVING: Jordan Waugh, a 6-foot-4 senior on the Taholah Chitwhins, has an eye condition that renders him legally blind, though he can see enough to be a very valuable member of the team — he’s been their third-leading scorer and leading rebounder this season.

Waugh matched his season scoring average with seven points in the Chitwhins’ opening-round loss to second-ranked Almira/Coulee-Hartline.

SHORT JUMPERS: The line of the day belonged to Tulalip Heritage’s Lesjar McKinney — 22 points on 9-for-15 shooting (including 4-for-8 from beyond the 3-point arc), plus 13 rebounds, seven assists, four steals and a pair of blocks. … Two boys and six girls playing in the 1B tournament aren’t even in high school yet. They’re eighth-graders. Most of them didn’t do much on Wednesday, but Moses Lake Christian’s Hannah Dietzen sure did, scoring seven of her team’s 26 points in the Lions’ loss to Sprague-Harrington.

Elusive Reilly catches on at Combine

YAKIMA, Wash. — Among the most overlooked and underrated qualities Mike Reilly displayed during his historic four years at Central Washington was elusiveness.

Ask rival defenders. If the 6-foot-3, 212-pound quarterback seemed easy to get close to while preparing to pass, he was next-to-impossible to actually tackle before getting rid of the ball.

And at the recently concluded NFL Scouting Combine in Indian-apolis, Reilly scored well in a test intended to gauge just such ability.

“It’s called the three-cone drill,” Reilly explained during a telephone interview Wednesday night from his training home in southern California. “It’s a drill where you have to change direction a lot. It’s all about quickness instead of straight-line speed.”

Reilly’s time was 6.76 seconds — the best of his group and substantially faster than most of the other quarterbacks at the Combine.

“I want to say the average time for my group was something like 7.1, and maybe 7.2 for the other QBs,” he said. “The only groups that were faster were the DBs (defensive backs) and wide receivers. I felt pretty good about it.”

In fact, Reilly said his overall performance in the six-day gathering of top collegians, who were observed by NFL coaches, general managers and scouts, exceeded his expectations.

“It went great, better than I could have hoped for,” he said. “I had some pretty high expectations, and there’s always room for improvement, but I left with a really good feeling.”

Among the highlights, he said, was meeting with coaches from numerous NFL teams.

“I met with a lot of teams at the (East-West) Shrine Game,” he said, “but this time I actually got to talk with coaches and offensive coordinators and not just scouts. I was able to show them my football knowledge — drew up some plays on paper for them, stuff like that.”

A crucial part of the Combine, Reilly said, was being interviewed by coaches. Most, he said, were interested in what Reilly considered his uniqueness as a player.

“They asked me what sets me apart,” he said. “You figure arm strength is a quality you have to have, and I feel like all the quarterbacks in the NFL have that. So for me to have that doesn’t set me apart.

“I told them that one way or another, through luck or skill or something in between, I can make good things happen from bad situations. Sometimes that’s running downfield for yardage, getting away from a sack — turning a negative situation into a positive.”

He was disappointed, however, in his official 40-yard dash time of 4.92.

“I’ll run the 40 again in Ellensburg,” he said. “A lot of the guys at the Combine had pretty good hand-held times, but when they used the electronic stuff their times were really slow. Am I a 4.92 guy? Definitely not.”

Reilly said he’ll leave California on Tuesday, and on March 9 will take part in an organized workout in front of NFL personnel at Central.

CWU tight end Jared Bronson, who also participated in the Combine, will take part along with other Wildcats such as wide receiver Johnny Spevak and cornerback-kick returner Courtney Smith. Spevak and Smith will be seniors next fall.

The NFL draft is scheduled for April 25-26.

YVCC women go perfect in East

SPOKANE, Wash. — Chelsey Nill scored 22 points to lead Yakima Valley past Spokane 78-65 on Wednesday night to complete a perfect Eastern Region season for the Yaks.

Third-ranked YVCC logged its first 14-0 region run (23-5 overall) in the six-year coaching tenure of Cody Butler. Having games ago secured its third region title in the last four years, Yakima Valley will take a No. 1 seed into the NWAACC Tournament March 5-8 in Kennewick.

Other Eastern representatives will be (in order) Walla Walla, Treasure Valley and defending tournament champion Columbia Basin.

Nicole DeRosier had 18 points, Kylie Shaw 15 and Brittany Weaver 10 for the Yaks, who hit 11 of 26 3-pointers (42 percent) to only 7 of 23 (30 percent) for Spokane (8-6, 15-11).

Kelsey Stillar led the Sasquatch with 19 points.

YAKIMA VALLEY — McBride 1-4 1-2 3, Nicole DeRosier 7-15 0-1 18, Chelsey Nill 7-14 5-6 22, Kylie Shaw 6-8 2-3 15, Harris 3-5 1-2 8, Fulton 0-0 0-0 0, Brittany Weaver 4-8 0-0 10, Moehrle Druffel 0-1 0-0 0, Gough 0-1 0-0 0, Urquhart 0-0 0-0 0, Belcher 0-2 0-0 0, Fenumiai 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 29-60 9-14 78.

SPOKANE — Clark 3-4 0-0 6, Clara Hull 4-8 3-4 14, Kelsey Stillar 6-17 3-3 19, Eisermann 3-8 3-4 9, Richelle Daily 4-10 3-6 11, Edwards 1-4 0-0 2, Arellano 1-6 0-0 2, Clough 1-2 0-0 2, DePaolo 0-1 0-0 0, Spicer 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-60 12-17 65.

Halftime — YVCC 37, Spo 32. 3-point goals — YVCC 11-26 (Weaver 2-4, Moehrle Druffel 0-1, Gough 0-1, DeRosier 4-10, Nill 3-6, Belcher 0-2, Shaw 1-1, Harris 1-1); Spo 7-23 (Edwards 0-2, Arellano 0-1, Hull 3-5, DePaolo 0-1, Stillar 4-12, Eisenmann 0-1, Daily 0-1). Fouled out — None. Rebounds — YVCC 36 (Nill 6, Belcher 5); Spo 38 (Eisenmann 5, Hull 5, Stillar 5). Assists — YVCC 16 (Weaver 3, Shaw 3). Turnovers — YVCC 11, Spo 14. Total fouls — YVCC 16, Spo 15.

YVCC loses, will be No. 2 seed

SPOKANE, Wash. — A first-half scoring drought proved fatal for Yakima Valley’s men Wednesday night, with the Yaks falling 83-51 to Spokane in a game that left YVCC an Eastern Region co-champion but a No. 2 NWAACC Tournament seed.

Though Yakima Valley and Spokane each finished with 11-3 region records, the Sasquatch will be the top seed by virtue of their regular-season sweep of the fifth-ranked Yaks (22-6 overall).

The East’s other seeds in the tourney, set for March 5-8 at Kennewick, will be Blue Mountain (No. 3) and Columbia Basin (No. 4).

YVCC started strong, coach Ray Funk said, but hit a stretch in which it scored only twice out of 25 possessions. The Yaks were down 38-22 at halftime and trailed 70-33 late.

Jody Johnson was the only double-digit scorer with 11 points for Yakima Valley, which shot only 32 percent and was outrebounded 54-33.

Zach Humphrey led Spokane with 19 points. Former Riverside Christian standout Chris Pynch, a reserve guard, scored four points in 18 minutes for  the Sasquatch (19-6).

YAKIMA VALLEY — Allen 0-2 0-0 0, Wilkins 3-8 0-0 7, Jody Johnson 4-17 2-4 11, D. Wilson 3-6 0-0 6, Holliday 1-6 0-0 2, B. Wilson 1-3 0-0 2, Sandoval 2-10 0-0 5, Gillispie 2-3 1-2 6, Anglin 2-4 1-4 5, Spellman 2-3 1-3 5, Whitsett 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 21-65 5-13 51.

SPOKANE — Gianukakis 4-10 0-0 9, Cameron 1-4 0-0 2, Clift 3-4 0-0 8, Johnson 2-8 0-0 6, Neil 4-8 0-0 8, Pynch 1-4 2-2 4, Brendan Ingebritsen 4-9 0-0 10, Zach Humphrey 7-9 0-0 19, Youngers 2-2 0-0 4, Jones 2-5 4-5 8, Anderson 1-2 3-5 5, Bond 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 31-66 9-12 83.

Halftime — Spo 38, YVCC 22. 3-point goals — YVCC 4-17 (B. Wilson 0-1, Wilkins 1-4, Johnson 1-2, D. Wilson 0-2, Holliday 0-1, Sandoval 1-4, Gillispie 1-2, Whitsett 1-3); Spo 12-28 (Gianukakis 1-4, Cameron 0-1, Pynch 0-1, Ingebritsen 2-5, Clift 2-3, Humphrey 5-7, Johnson 2-6, Bond 0-1). Fouled out — YVCC 17, Spo 16. Rebounds — YVCC 33 (Johnson 9); Spo 54 (Johnson 8). Assists — YVCC 7 (Sandoval 3); Spo 19 (Cameron 7). Turnovers — YVCC 17, Spo 20. Total fouls — YVCC 17, Spo 16.

Central moves up to 4th

ELLENSBURG, Wash. — Central Washington jumped one spot to fourth in this week’s Division II West Regional poll.

The Wildcats (15-5), who host Alaska Anchorage at 7:30 p.m. tonight, follwed BYU-Hawaii (18-1), Cal State Dominguez Hills (19-4) and Cal Poly Pomona (14-5), and were the top-ranked team in the GNAC.

Western Washington, a 20-point winner over CWU earlier this season in Ellensburg, fell two spots to fifth after losing two of its last three games. Seattle Pacific (18-7) was sixth and Saint Martin’s (20-7) seventh.

The top eight teams in the final regional poll make the Division II playoffs.

YH-R wins two national awards

YAKIMA, Wash. — The Yakima Herald-Republic sports department received a pair of national awards in the Associated Press Sports Editors section contest judging that concluded Wednesday in Las Vegas.

The Herald-Republic was judged to have one of the 10 best daily and Sunday sections among papers with a circulation of less than 40,000. The paper also earned an honorable mention in the special section contest for its prep football preview.

Ten newspapers in the country earned Top 10s in each of the categories for a so-called Triple Crown.

The Boston Globe and The Washington Post, competing in the over-250,000 circulation division, Palm Beach Post and Omaha World Herald in the 100,000-250,000 category; Colorado Springs Gazette in the 40,000-100,000 circulation division; Beaver County (Pa.) Times and Bellingham Herald in under-40,000; and the Hilton Head (S.C.) Island Packet; Naperville (Ill.) Sun and Sauk Valley Newspapers (Sterling, Ill.) in under-20,000.

• Information from The Associated Press was used in this report

WV’s Chase scores 1,000th point at UPS

KAREN CHASE (West Valley), a senior at the University of Puget Sound, scored the 1,000th point of her Logger career in a recent 68-63 victory over Whitman. Another UPS senior, Andrea Edwards (West Valley/Columbia Basin College) scored 11 points in her final regular-season home game.

RACHEL HOTCHKO (Davis), a junior at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, helped the Seahawks set Capital Athletic Conference and school records by swimming on the 200 medley relay. The team’s time of 1:47.17 w as also an NCAA provisional qualifying time, and knocked nearly three seconds off the school record.

LYNSEY BERNFELD (West Valley), a junior at Carleton College, competed in a men’s and women’s program that produced the highest combined grade-point average among all collegiate swim programs.

PATRICK ELERDING (Sunnyside Christian), a junior at Gardner-Webb University in North Carolina, won the 100-yard butterfly (48.9 seconds), was second in the 100 breaststroke (56.6) and was third in the 50 free (21.1) in the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association championships at the University of Georgia.

TANA STICKNEY (East Valley/Yakima Valley CC), a junior at Eastern Oregon, totaled 21 points and 18 rebounds in the Mountaineers’ 69-58 loss to 11th-ranked College of Idaho. Stickney is averaging 9.1 points, fourth best on the team, and a team-high 5.8 rebounds.

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