Zillah's Duran Torrez hugs head coach Doug Burge after the Leopards' 57-55 win over Granger for fifth place on Saturday.   SANDY SUMMERS/Yakima Herald-Republic View all photos for this story.

Leopards turn away furious Spartan rally
in fourth quarter, win 57-55 for fifth place

By PAUL SHUGAR
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Everything was going so right for Zillah guard Duran Torrez, it’s hard to believe that one shot almost cost him a victorious end to his senior season.

After Granger continued its string of fourth-quarter heroics to pull within one and guard Mario Mengarelli just missed a layup to take the lead with 16 seconds left, Torrez came down with the rebound and was fouled.

Leopard coach Doug Burge couldn’t ask for a better player to get fouled in the double bonus. But then Zillah’s best free-throw shooter did the last thing his coach expected him to do, he missed.

“I knew when I let go it was a miss,” said Torrez, who finished with a game-high 29 points, shot 8 of 10 from the foul line and was the only Leopard in double figures. “But I only missed like four all tournament, so after they called a timeout I just focused on making the second one so they needed a last-second (3-pointer) to win it.”

Torrez calmly nailed his second shot and Granger (17-11) couldn’t even manage a shot in the last seconds to lose 57-55 and give Zillah (22-5) fifth place at the 1A state tournament Saturday in the SunDome. Granger, who came from 10 points behind to win earlier in the tournament and trailed Zillah by 11 with 5:38 remaining, took a heartbreaking eighth.

“I told the guys that since Christmas we lost five games all to state-trophy teams,” said Spartan coach David Gibb, who won his second eighth-place trophy at Granger. “They belonged here just as much as anybody else.”

Torrez made sure to make the most of his final game. He scored 18 of his 29 points in the first half to help the Leopards build a 35-31 lead at halftime after Granger came out and scored the first nine points of the game.

After halftime Zillah did its best to make sure the dangerous Spartans would need a huge effort to win. Granger managed only five points in the third and all of them came in the last four minutes.

Meanwhile Torrez hit one of his five 3-pointers — he finished 5 of 8 from behind the arc — to help spark a 12-5 run and give Zillah a 47-36 lead going into the fourth.

“I’m not going to play basketball like this again,” Torrez said. “Sure there might be intramurals in college, but nothing can match the atmosphere of a state playoff game. I didn’t care if I missed all my shots, I was going to go out shooting. Lucky for me they started falling and I got in a rhythm.”

But even shooting 55.9 percent from the field, Zillah found out that no lead was safe against the Spartans, especially when they start forcing turnovers and turning them into easy points.

Granger forced eight of its 18 turnovers in the fourth quarter and finished with 20 points for their efforts and cut the lead to four, 52-48, with 2:29 remaining.

“This team has so much heart that we’re never finished,” said Mengarelli, who scored 12 points. “No one has a quitting attitude.”

After Spartan forward Riley Walker converted a turnover into a three-point play to pull them within two, Mengarelli stole the ball and found guard Jose Cortez to tie the game 55-55 with 28 seconds remaining.

From there bad free-throw shooting continued to give Granger hope. Zillah hit only 2 of its last six free throws in the last 40 seconds to hold onto the win.

The Spartans finished with three players in double figures and were lead by senior forward Sean Golob’s 15 points and seven rebounds. Guard Edward Castro, who hit six 3-pointers in Friday’s win against Winlock, finished 1 of 7 from behind the arc with Torrez guarding him and had 11 points.

The end of the season brings a halt of two teams that were going two different directions in tournament play.

Zillah came into the season as a possible state championship contender and had its hopes dashed in the first round with a 54-41 loss to Seattle Christian.

From there the Leopards continued to struggle, getting off to slow starts, missing free throws and watching their leading scorers — besides Torrez — have off games.

“I told the kids that I don’t really believe we played our best ball and we still took fifth place,” Burge said.

Meanwhile Granger played No. 1-ranked Believe Christian tough in the first round, losing 53-41, before winning two straight games by a combined score of 11 points to trophy. And the fact Zillah defeated the Spartans by an average of 17 points in their two meetings earlier in the year, they had no doubt about giving the Leopards a tough game.

“I think all season we just started believe in each other,” Mengarelli said.

“I can’t really say what else changed.”