YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

It’s basic basketball. If a guy sinks the first free throw, you want him to miss the second and you’ve got a time out, you call it.

Cashmere coach Miles Caples did, and it became the last call of his coaching career.

With Caples’ Bulldogs leading Nooksack Valley 37-35 in an elimination game on Friday, the Pioneers’ Jeb Hobbs was fouled on a putback attempt with 0.7 seconds remaining. After Hobbs made the first one look too easy, Caples called time out to ice him on the second.

When the Pioneers circled around coach Bill Kelly, he told his would-be offensive rebounders, Chris O’Day and Alex Van Dyken: Don’t grab the ball if he misses. You don’t have time. Just try to tip it up with one hand.

“I’d expect Jeb to hit ’em both,” O’Day would say later. “But I knew the (Cashmere) guy below me (on the side of the lane) was shorter than me, so I figured I could get up faster.”

Hobbs’ shot lipped off the front rim and O’Day was right — he slapped the ball up, and it caromed off the backboard, the right rim, the left rim, the back of the rim ... and into the basket.

Pioneers win, 38-37. And the smart basketball move — the timeout to ice the shooter — was Caples’ last after 10 years as Cashmere’s coach and 28 years in the business. He had announced earlier he was retiring from coaching.

On the other hand, Kelly — four of whose five state titles came at Cashmere in the 1970s and ’80s — is having way too much fun to quit. When O’Day made his tip-in, Kelly actually jumped for the rafters.

OK, not quite that high. But when he walked into the Bulldogs’ locker room, the players were all holding their hands about 14 inches above the floor, estimating his vertical leap. “Hey, coach,” one said, “you got good elevation!”

ONLY SHOW IN TOWN: Next year’s state tournament in the new 1B classification — the tiniest of the tiny schools — will actually have what amounts to the biggest showcase: its own weekend.

The WIAA has scheduled the little-school tournament, which will be played in the SunDome, for Feb. 21-24 — a week before the 2B (Spokane), 1A (Yakima) and 4A (Tacoma) tourneys, and two weeks before the 2A and 3A events in Tacoma and Seattle, respectively.

The earlier date was requested by the schools, said Cindy Hettinger, the WIAA’s assistant executive director, because so many of the basketball players at the smaller schools play spring sports as well. But the early week may also help draw bigger crowds to the SunDome and Yakima hotels than it might on a more crowded weekend.

“It’ll be the only show in town,” Hettinger said.

GRANDVIEW'S TROPHY RUN: When Grandview's boys qualify for state, they don't mess around. They stay for the whole show.

When the Greyhounds defeated Cashmere in the quarterfinals on Thursday, they locked up the program's 11th state trophy. And considering this is Grandview's 11th state trip, that's a pretty good percentage.

The latest edition of the Grandview run will play for third and sixth Saturday at 3:30 p.m. against Vashon Island.

Combining their status as a 2A and 1A program since 1988, the Greyhounds have amassed three championships, two third-place finishes and one each for fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth.

THE BAND PLAYED ON: When Eatonville’s band couldn’t make it over the pass, the Cruisers had no one to support them musically during their Friday morning girls elimination game against Lakeside. The La Center band had just finished a stellar set during the Wildcats’ victory over Forks, and Larry Anderson, a member of the tournament staff, went over to commend them and to tell them of the plight of Eatonville’s band. Would the La Center band members be willing to play an extended encore for Eatonville? They were ... and ended up receiving the game’s WIAA sportsmanship medallion. Woodland’s band did the same thing later on for Vashon Island.

SHORT JUMPERS: In its consolation loss to Hockinson, East Valley started out with a 1-0 lead, the result of a pregame free throw by Drew Edgerly. Hockinson was issued a technical foul after their players ran around the court and under the Red Devils’ basket during their pre-game arrival on the court. According to the rules, that can be considered an intimidation tactic; you’ve got to stay on your own side of the court. ... Ephrata girls coach Missy Beierman, whose Tigers were eliminated on Thursday, told tournament officials she won’t be coaching the team next year. ... Chad Christopherson of the Yakima Valley Officials Association will be one of the three officials in Saturday's boys title game, while Jerry Caiole of the Central Washington Officials Association will work the girls title game at 9.