District 7 2B Tournament second round turns out one upset

Spokane Valley--The second round of the District 7 2B Tournament featured two overtime contests, mostly expected results and one surprising result that affected the outlook of the girls' bracket. All higher seeds won Thursday, with the exception of the Reardan girls pulling off an upset victory over St. George's in overtime that sent them into the district semifinals and the favored Dragons into a loser-out scenario.

Locally, the Davenport boys survived St. George's in overtime by the skin of their teeth to avoid becoming upset victims themselves. The Reardan boys met the fate most are allotted when facing Colfax.

As follows is a breakdown of all the games in sequential order, with comments from several local coaches.

Girls bracket

No. 3 Kettle Falls 45, No. 6 Lind-Ritzville/Sprague 38

The Bulldogs survived a feisty Broncos team that played Kettle Falls to a 21-21 halftime tie and 31-31 end-of-third-quarter tie before pulling away in the fourth quarter. Mya Edwards led the victors with 18 points, while Grace Fedie led LRS with 11 points.

Kettle Falls advanced to the district semifinals, while LRS was sent to a loser-out game against Asotin. That game is Saturday, Feb. 12 at 3:30 p.m.

Comments from LRS head coach Steve Wellsandt:

We just went a long time in the fourth quarter without getting a bucket, and then got in some foul trouble.

I was proud of the girls. We lost to them by 30 points in Ritzville about a month ago, and I thought defensively we played well and just had to put a few more shots in the bucket.

If we play like we played today, we have a shot (at regionals). We just have to keep winning ball games...we'll be alright if we play like that.

No. 2 Liberty 59, No. 10 Northwest Christian 27

The Lancers unsurprisingly had little trouble with the challengers from Colbert, jumping out to a 20-8 first quarter lead that expanded to 32-13 by halftime. Most of Liberty's starters rested in the second half as the tournament's second seed advanced to a district semifinal matchup with Kettle Falls.

Liberty was led by Teagan Colvin, who scored 16 points.

NWC was sent to the loser's bracket with a loss, but will earn a win in its next game due to Chesterton Academy's forfeiture of the tournament. The Crusaders will play the winner of a loser-out matchup between LRS and Asotin Tuesday, Feb. 15.

No. 5 Reardan 55, No. 4 St. George's 47

The tournament's singular upset Thursday came via the Reardan girls, who sent their game against St. George's to overtime when senior Mady Dewey tied the game on a driving layup in the final 10 seconds. It was Dewey's only two points of the game, but possibly the biggest of her career thus far.

Reardan then put together an excellent four minutes in overtime to earn a win over the favored Dragons. They were led by 19 points from Ayden Krupke and 14 points from freshman MacKenzie Bjornberg, who contributed her total before fouling out with 4:41 remaining in regulation.

St. George's was sent to a loser-out game against Davenport Saturday. The Dragons will have to win three straight games to earn one of the district's four spots at regionals.

Reardan, meanwhile, will have a tough district semifinal task against the tournament's top seed in Colfax Tuesday.

Comments from Reardan head coach Bob Swannack

It's a good win for a team that hasn't won much over the year. I come into the locker room, and they're hootin' and hollerin', excited.

That gives us hope. It makes the girls believe that we maybe can compete for that third seed.

We did a really good job on their post tonight...that's the one thing we keyed on that we did a really good job out of three days of controlled practice.

Madi Dewey hadn't done anything the whole game, and I ran a set to her because I knew the whole gymnasium thought I would go to Ayden Krupke to finish the game. That's 30 years of coaching right there. But Ayden hit some shots in crunch time, and Madi's shot to get us into overtime was huge.

Liberty Anderson stepped up tonight, and MacKenzie Bjornberg, that's her best offensive game of the year.

No. 1 Colfax 67, No. 8 Upper Columbia Academy 24

Perhaps Thursday's least surprising result came as the top-seeded Bulldogs had no trouble with the Lions behind 26 points from Asher Cai, who sat much of the second half as Colfax forced a running clock.

Colfax will play Reardan for a chance to go to the district championship and earn an automatic berth to state regionals Tuesday, while UCA heads to a loser-out game against Chewelah Saturday.

Boys bracket

No. 3 Davenport 55, No. 6 St. George's 45

The Gorillas received a serious scare from the Dragons, who led 42-41 with six seconds left in regulation. Tennesee Rainwater then drove the lane and drew a foul with two seconds on the clock. He missed the first and made the second to force overtime, where the Gorillas finally put away their pesky opponent to advance to the district semifinal despite a difficult shooting game.

Rainwater led the scoring with 24 points, while the Dragons were paced by Shawn Jones and Tanner Watkins, who each scored 17.

Davenport will play familiar adversary Colfax in the semifinals, while St. George's will try to stave off elimination against Kettle Falls Saturday.

Comments from Davenport head coach Matt Henry

It was defensively, and we started to execute better (in overtime). We put the ball in the hands that we wanted to, and we created spacing. They're always a tough team, and they're well-coached. This is one of the best coached leagues in the state...so we knew we were in for a battle.

It feels good. There's frustration, and seeing that frustration give way to confidence and hard work in the huddles was really fun.

We need to do a better job offensively spacing and putting the ball in the right position.

No. 2 Colfax 68, No. 7 Reardan 53

Reardan put up a fight in the first half and trailed by just nine at intermission, but Colfax began to blow the barn doors off the joint in the third quarter to pull away from its underdog opponent.

John Lustig led all scorers with 28 points, while Damian Demler had 16 points, including 12 in the first quarter. Senior Cody Sprecher was Reardan's leading scorer with 20 points.

Colfax advanced to a heavyweight semifinal matchup against Davenport. Reardan heads to the loser's bracket and receives a bye in its next game due to Chesterton Academy's forfeiture. The boys will play the winner of St. George's and Kettle Falls Tuesday.

Comments from Colfax head coach Reece Jenkin

You have some kids out there with some nerves, but the kids came out and competed well. We executed pretty well. Maybe not as locked in defensively as I would like to see us early on, but things kind of came around there and executed our sets pretty well. A good win for us, and we'll get ready for the next one.

Sprecher attacked us and hurt us a little bit in the first half. We switched John onto him in the second half, and he's long. His length bothered him a little bit. He still had a good game for them, but that allowed us to get a couple stops and get in a rhythm to be able to get out and go from there.

Comments from Reardan head coach Brian Graham

We tried to really mix things up and make them feel as uncomfortable as we could. We knew we couldn't match them man-to-man. It just wasn't going to work. We thought we could take advantage of them in different zones. We're not a zone team, so we're going to make mistakes in it but we felt like it was the best chance to win. Unfortunately, we left a couple guys open and they hit their buckets when they were open.

We played really well in the first half. Down nine at half, I'm okay with that. It's a good spot to be in, it's not terrible, it's still within striking distance. But then we came out in the second half and had four possessions in a row where we couldn't catch a pass. You can't win against a good team like that when you're not even getting shots up.

No. 4 Northwest Christian 56, No. 5 Lind-Ritzville/Sprague 46

Northwest Christian came out swinging against the Broncos and didn't look back in advancing to the district semifinals. LRS will play Chewelah to keep its season alive Saturday.

No. 1 Liberty 68, No. 8 Asotin 50

The top-seeded Lancers got off to a strong start, taking a 14-4 lead in the first quarter. Asotin kept the deficit to 14 points at halftime and played even in the third quarter, but Liberty extended its advantage to 20 points before pulling its starters with two minutes to play.

Colton Marsh led the scoring with 23 points.

Liberty advanced to the district semifinals against NWC, while Asotin has a loser-out game against Upper Columbia Academy Saturday.

Comments from Liberty head coach Jared Hodl

First half we came out pretty strong...we're recovering from some sicknesses, so our stamina's not where it has been, but it was a good first half. We battled through and were a little more productive swinging the ball on offense in the second half.

Kids were settling down and not taking their first look as a shot. Even though it looks good, it might not necessarily be the shot we need to get rolling. They did a good job of slowing it down and ball faking and taking it to the whole to make it a good pass for a high-percentage finish.