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| Published March 5, 2004 :: Home |
NWC Earns Title Shot N.W. Christian, in its first Class 1A state boys appearance, stormed into the championship game by smothering King’s and tournament career scoring leader Chris Faidley 44-35 in the first Friday semifinal in the SunDome. The Crusaders from Colbert, which is just north of Spokane, improved to 26-2 and earned their second shot of the season at defending champion Brewster, which will be heavily favored. N.W. Christian lost to the Bears 78-52 in a recent regional finale. Since then, however, coach Ray Ricks’ squad has not only won, it has won impressively. Against King’s, playing in its 17th state tournament and which won titles in 2001 and 2002, the Crusaders shifted, rotated and defended ferociously in their trademark 2-3 zone defense. “It’s our bread and butter,” said Ricks, who’s in his fourth season at NWC. “Our inexperience showed up late in the game, when we made some turnovers and missed some free throws, but I kept telling our kids, ‘I believe in you guys. I believe, I believe ...’” The Crusaders held King’s to 10 points and 19 percent shooting in the first half (they led 19-10 at intermission) and 20 percent shooting for the game. Faidley, a 6-foot-2 senior, came into the game needing four points to break the 252 scored by La Center’s Dustin Van Weerdhuizen from 1995-98. He had to wait until the second half to get them. With a defender shadowing his every step, Faidley went scoreless in the first half on 0-for-6 shooting and finished the game 2-for-17, including 0-for-12 from 3-point range. He totaled 10 points. Andy Beyer, a 6-2 senior, and Robert Lippman, a 6-7 senior, scored 10 points each for N.W. Christian. They also grabbed nine and eight rebounds, respectively, as the Crusaders aggressively took control with a game-opening 11-0 run and held on. As with Thursday’s quarterfinal conquest of Zillah, NWC wobbled a bit in the face of late pressing and trapping by King’s. The Crusaders left the door temporarily ajar by missing 7 of 9 free throws during a 1:14 span of the fourth quarter during which King’s got within 39-32 with 1:15 to play.
But Jesse Vowels and Josh Greer made 5 of 6 foul shots
over the final 37 seconds to close the game.
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