Something familiar about Wapato boys

By SCOTT SANDSBERRY and SCOTT SPRUILL
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Anybody who was part of that massive SunDome throng for the 2000 Class 2A overtime championship thriller between Blaine and Wapato remembers the Borderites’ Luke Ridnour, the future Oregon All-American and NBA point guard.

But Wapato fans also will remember the Alvarado twins, Juan and Raul, and have enjoying watching the twins’ younger brother, Rigo, a junior guard on the sixth-ranked Wolves. He’s such the spitting image of his brothers in their playing days that seeing him probably has Wolves supporters feeling a bit of deja vu.

Certainly, Juan has been.

“It brings back good memories,” Juan said at halftime of Wapato’s quarterfinal against No. 3 River Ridge. “I think it’s harder watching than playing. We were so close (in 2000, a 60-56 overtime loss); we should have won.”

Would big brother give little brother any advice? “We tell him, keep your composure and play as a team. That’s what got us to the championship game. We didn’t care who scored as long as we won.”

A friend of Juan’s had a great idea should the Wolves reach the championship game: to get the players T-shirts that read, “NO FEAR: LUKE’S NOT HERE.”

Unfortunately for the Wolves’ title-run hopes, River Ridge was.

FAMILY MATTERS: Of course, the Alvarados’ family-tournament ties isn’t unique; state tourneys always have plenty of them. Just a few of what is probably dozens of such connections: Mario Sanchez of Toppenish has an uncle, Marcelino Osorio, who played on the last Wildcats team to reach the state tournament (1992); Leah Korthuis of Lynden is the daughter of Bryan Korthuis, a member of Lynden Christian’s 1976 state title team; and Squalicum’s Derek Dickerson is the son of Tim Dickerson, a standout guard on Bellingham’s fourth-place 3A finishers in 1983.

QUINCY’S BOUNCE BACK: After their upset loss to Anacortes in Wednesday’s 9 a.m. opener, Quincy’s boys returned to the hard-nosed defense that earned them the CWAC district title and it bought the Jackrabbits another day here.

Holding Hockinson to 10 first-half points and 31-percent shooting for the game, Quincy eliminated the Hawks 42-32 in Thursday’s early game. Hockinson didn’t reach 20 points until 6:31 left in the fourth quarter.

Coach Wade Petersen’s team went 7-3 in the second half of the regular season and in six of those games Quincy held its opponent to 40 points or less. Even in the loss to Anacortes the defense was credible, allowing just 48 points.

The challenge for the Jackrabbits is generating enough offense to compliment that stout defense, and Eric Martin has been doing most of the heavy lifting. The 6-3 senior forward has scored 46 of Quincy’s 83 points in two games and no other players have scored in double figures.

Thursday’s win also proves Quincy can win a 9 a.m. game, which is good because Friday is round three of the breakfast special against Pullman. And if the ‘rabbits win again they can sleep in for Saturday’s trophy game for fifth and eighth, which starts at 10 a.m.

THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT: The Mark Morris boys came in with the state’s No. 2 ranking and the 2A ranks’ tallest lineup, but the front-line guys who gave them that height advantage — 6-foot-9 Eric Hutchison, 6-9 Tyler Sokol and 6-7 Austin Bragg — simply weren’t a big factor in the tournament as the Monarchs went two-and-out. The three averaged a cumulative 30.7 points during the season, but were barely even a factor Wednesday and Thursday. Between them, they took just 27 shots in the tournament — an average of 4.5 shots per player per game.

One Monarch took more shots than Hutchinson and Sokol combined — John DeVries’ 17 shots to their 16. He converted just one.

PLAYS OF THE DAY: Fife’s Dustin Yarrington made one of those split-second plays that make fans nudge the people beside them to say, “Did you see that?” In Thursday’s quarterfinal victory over Anacortes, Yarrington was chasing an overthrown fast-break pass to save it from flying out of bounds. He got to it just in time, but his own momentum was going to carry him out of bounds. Already basically under the backboard when he was able to control the ball, he still had the presence of mind, the body control and the ball wizardry to put in a twisting layup off the glass. The ball dropped through the net just as he slammed into the basket.

The girls court had two good ones in the Ellensburg-Lynden quarterfinal, one of them similar to Yarrington’s fast-break play. The Bulldogs’ Casey Kelleher collided with a defender on her drive, was tumbling out of bounds when she tossed the ball toward the basket, probably hoping to get a couple of foul shots out of it. She didn’t get the call, but the ball somehow went into the basket.

Also in that game, Lynden’s Brandi Benner fired in a halftime-buzzer-beating 27-footer. What makes a simple buzzer-beater so interesting? Well, the Lions had missed 14 of their previous 16 shots of the half.