Grandview's Brandon Artz (12) battles with Nooksack Valley's Bret Handy during the first half of Monday's game in the Tourneytown.com Shootout.   BRIAN FITZGERALD/Yakima Herald-Republic View all photos for this story.

In postgame interviews Monday at the Tourneytown.com Shootout, coaches of both Nooksack Valley and Grandview referred to the game having been “a measuring stick.”

The implication was clear: Players on each team were measuring themselves against an opponent they very well might see again in the SunDome at state-tournament time. The primary problem for the Greyhounds, though, was that the visitors from Whatcom County would have needed significantly longer measuring sticks.

Giving up an average of three inches per man to the Pioneers, Grandview was dominated on the boards and came out on the short end — OK, pun intended — of a 59-53 score.

“We’ve always been real small. We just have to get used to it,” Grandview senior guard James Vela said after the defeat, which dropped the Greyhounds’ record to 9-3. “We have to use our quickness to overcome that.”

The Greyhounds couldn’t do it, though, even when they turned up their withering press.

“It’s difficult to play them,” said sophomore guard Rich Skillman, who led Nooksack Valley (13-2) with 20 points. “They swarm to the ball. We knew they press pretty good, and we had to be ready for that.”

The Pioneers were so ready, in fact, that they actually came up with more steals (10) than the Greyhounds (5), including the one that might have been the biggest play of the game.

Trailing 38-34 with 35 seconds remaining in the third quarter, Grandview opted to hold for the last shot. But when the Greyhounds began the play with 10 seconds left, Skillman picked off a pass and streaked to the other end for a layup.

“He’s got awful quick hands,” Nooksack Valley coach Bill Kelly said of Skillman, who finished with a game-high four steals.

“I saw the guy come for the back pick off (Grandview’s Anthony) Andrews,” Skillman said, “and I just read off that and went for the ball.”

So instead of cutting the Pioneers’ lead to two points or even one, Grandview found itself staring at a six-point deficit. The margin never got smaller than four points the rest of the way.

“That was kind of a tough break there,” Grandview coach Scott Parrish said. “You pull it out to play for one shot and instead they get the steal and take it in. Was that Skillman? Number 14? He had a great game. Awesome game.”

The Greyhounds, though, kept things much closer than their summer-tournament loss to the Pioneers, in which the spread was nearly 20 points for much of the game. Even though they were outrebounded 37-23, gave up 13 points to 6-foot-7 junior Chris Mitchell and allowed the towering Pioneers three tip-ins, they were still in the game in the final seconds.

Grandview got 13 points each from Nate Zavala (6-for-8 from the field) and A.J. Valencia, while C.J. Lopez added 11, including three 3-pointers.

“I think we know now,” Parrish said, “we can compete with, if not the best team in the state in our classification, at least one of the top two or three.”

“We know what we have to do next time,” Vela said, noting that the teams could meet again come March. “We got killed on the boards. The little things we work so hard on in practice, we just didn’t execute.

“Maybe next time we can pull it out.”