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Mike
Anderson
Yakima Herald-Republic
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East Valley Proves Yet Again
That Defense Wins Games
Defense wins championships.
It’s a basketball adage as old as the center jump and the peach basket, but
East Valley coach Jack Cleveland believes it with every fiber of his being.
As such, he preaches and teaches a practically obnoxious man-to-man defense
that his Red Devils have ridden to one Class 2A state championship and
halfway to another in the past 12 months.
The Red Devils needed all that their defense could provide Thursday night to
get past Tenino in the Class 2A quarterfinals and advance into Friday
night’s semifinal against either Chelan or Blaine.
Cleveland’s reliance on defense is based on history, both old and new. He’s
been doing it as long as he’s been coaching, more than 20 years in the boys
ranks and six years at EVHS.
And it was a calling card this year. The Red Devils held their opponents to
less than 40 points in 14 of 24 games coming in, including the 19 they
allowed Class 3A Selah on the first night of the season.
But on this night, the defense was willing to be helpful.
The Red Devils assisted Tenino in tying a tourney record for frugality in a
quarter, holding the Beavers scoreless in the second period. It was part of
a stunning 20-minute stretch in parts of three quarters where East Valley
allowed just eight points.
That kind of assistance is not easy. Tenino is a team that scored over 70
points five times this season and the Beavers hung 55 on Granite Falls
Wednesday night. East Valley held them to seven in the first half.
East Valley’s defense was stifling through the middle of the game.
And the Red Devils did it on what is practically their home court. They are
9-1 in their last 10 games on the SunDome’s Sun Kings floor (and 15-3
overall since the 2A came to Yakima), the court the girls' games and trophy
contests are played on. And it’s a floor they can literally defend, holding
eight of their last nine opponents in the SunDome to 40 or less.
Nikki Johnson hit a pair of free throws with 6:26 remaining in the first
period. From that point, it took the Beavers until the 1:56 mark of the
third period to score 10 more points.
Keying that effort was junior Angie Mullen, who drew the difficult task of
stopping Johnson, the Beavers’ high-scoring wing, who was looking to bust
out after being held to 14 -- seven below her average -- in the opening win
against Granite Falls.
“We told Angie, ‘You’ve got one of the best players in the tournament,’ ”
Cleveland said. “ ‘You have to deny her the ball and get up into her, and
we’ll help you out when you need it.’ ”
Mullen did just that, holding Johnson -- with plenty of help -- to 14 points
again, harassing her into a 4-for-14 shooting performance.
“I knew she was good, and I would have a hard job tonight,” Mullen said.
“Our defense is what we do.”
One of the things that defense did was allowed the Red Devils to do is get
back to the state semifinals after losing six seniors from the 2002 state
champions.
Cleveland spoke at length about how that title team benefited from a
hard-working bunch of reserves and junior varsity players, the players who
largely comprise this year’s 24-4 semifinalists, a team that -- when truth
be told -- few thought would still be in the championship bracket this late
in the tournament.
“I think it’s important to give credit to these kids for last year because
they helped us win that championship,” Cleveland said. “People don’t realize
how hard they worked to do that.” ©
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