Spartans continue run through consolation
bracket with a 64-55 victory over Winlock

By PAUL SHUGAR
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Granger's boys basketball team has a perfectly good excuse for almost blowing a 16-point lead in the fourth quarter.

The Spartans aren’t used to being ahead lately.

Granger held off a late rally from the Winlock Cardinals to continue its Cinderella run through the losers’ bracket with a 64-55 win Friday in the SunDome.

The Spartans will meet SCAC West rival Zillah (20-5), who defeated Burbank 45-38 to move on, in the fifth/eighth-place game Saturday at 10:30 a.m.

The Leopards, the SCAC district tournament champions, defeated Granger (17-10) twice this season by an average of 17 points. But with the Spartans' strong play lately, the last thing they are thinking about is dropping a third to Zillah and being content with just a eighth-place trophy.

“Anything can happen in the SunDome,” Granger guard Edward Castro said. “A lot of people were counting us out at the start of this thing, but on any given night — if a team is hot or cold — anything can happen.”

Castro made sure to show how much a hot-shooting team can hurt. He finished 6 of 10 from 3-point range for a game-high 23 points and barely missed breaking the state tournament record of eight 3-pointers in a game. After the game, Castro understood why people were yelling from the stands for him to keep shooting the long ball with a comfortable lead.

“The last two games I’ve been not so good, but I got it going today,” Castro said. “They were in a zone (defense), so it was a lot easier for me to be able to knock down my (3-pointer).”

Castro hit three 3-pointers in a row to help put an end to a 15-6 run that gave Granger a 44-29 lead with 2 minutes and 35 seconds left in the third quarter. From there the Spartans extended their lead to 16, 48-32, and looked to have control of the game going into the fourth.

But after Granger staged a 10-point fourth-quarter comeback for a 55-53 win against Oroville on Thursday, the Cardinals (17-10) tried to do the Spartans one better.

Winlock went to a full-court press to pick up the tempo and force Granger into turnovers. The strategy worked and sparked a 15-7 run to pull the Cardinals back within single digits, 55-47, with 3:34 remaining.

After spending most of the third quarter on the bench with four fouls, guard Ben Prigmore came back after his rest to score six of his 17 points in the fourth quarter, and guard Dan Ekstedt, who also scored 17, chipped in 11 before fouling out with 1:16 left.

Center Kevin Hauschild was the only other Cardinal in double figures with a double-double of 12 points and 15 rebounds.

Hauschild’s 3-pointer pulled Winlock within three points, 58-55, with 1:18 left in the game, but losing Ekstedt on the next play proved to be costly as Granger hit enough free throws and grabbed three turnovers in the final minute to secure the win.

“It’s never over, we proved that (Thursday) that it’s not over until the final buzzer,” Granger coach David Gibb said. “I’m just glad we kept it together long enough to finish this thing.”

Helping Granger preserve the lead were forwards Sean Golob and Eric Paul.

Golob scored 22 points and Paul had 10 and eight rebounds to make sure the seniors will get to go out with a state-tournament trophy. This was the second big game in a row for Paul, who averaged 5 points per game this season. He recorded a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds in Thursday’s win.

“I didn’t want to lose, so I just came off the bench and played hard,” Paul said. “I’m a senior and I want to go out feeling good.”

Now Granger will prepare to meet Zillah to help close out a strong finish for the SCAC West at the state tournament. All three of the boys teams — White Swan, Zillah and Granger — are guaranteed trophies.

But while Gibb was willing to predict that his team would win a trophy earlier this week, he stopped short of saying his team would take down Zillah on Saturday.

“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch,” Gibb said. “But as I explained to the boys in the locker room, a fifth-place trophy takes up more room in the trophy case than a eighth-place one.”