MONTESANO — Willapa Valley overcame a 10-point deficit in the third quarter to defeat Life Christian Academy 68-64 on Friday in Montesano, stamping its ticket to the 2B District IV championship game in the process.
The Vikings held a slim 37-34 lead after two quarters of play and had its shooting go cold to start the third quarter as the lead evaporated.
Willapa Valley (19-4) found itself down 51-41 to Life Christian Academy (16-4) with 3:13 to go in the third before the offense began to pick up again.
Vikings forward Logan Walker said he could feel the momentum shift in the building once Willapa Valley hit a couple of shots early in the fourth quarter.
“We got a couple of buckets and started rolling,” he said. “Everyone could feel the energy and it started turning around.”
Walker led the Vikings with 30 points, with his biggest bucket coming halfway through the fourth quarter. The senior took the ball past half court and drove the lane into the teeth of the Eagles defense. Walker was fouled on the play and threw up a shot as he felt contact. After briefly bouncing on the front of the rim, Walker’s desperation shot fell in, tying the game at 55-55 with 3:30 left in the game.
Though it was a tough shot, Walker said he had good feeling when the it went up.
“It felt good leaving my hand. Everything felt pretty good tonight,” he said.
Willapa Valley held off the Eagles comeback attempts down the stretch as the Vikings never fell behind the remainder of the contest.
Vikings head coach Jay Pearson said his team his team has been riding a wave of confidence since defeating Toutle Lake 46-44 on Wednesday.
“The key to this victory was the win versus Toutle Lake in Castle Rock. There was self doubt as to whether we were really that good of a team or not,” he said. “When we got over the hump against Toutle Lake you could just see them thinking ‘Yeah, we can do this.’
“All the spring ball, all the summer ball, all those years of playing 30 games a year, was all for that one game right there. They very easily could have given up in that third quarter, but they didn’t quit and they battled back.”
The pace of play slowed down in the second half after a first half that featured an up-tempo speed and a combined 11 made 3-pointers.
The Vikings came into Friday night’s matchup hoping for a slow-paced game and planned on using a zone-press defense to shut down the Eagles’ transition game.
Matt Pearson said the game plan changed with the Vikings getting off to a hot-shooting start.
“We wanted to slow down the tempo, but we were feeling it, so we went from there,” he said.
One of the players the Eagles relied on in the early going was Derek Wallace. Wallace made four 3-pointers in the first 16 minutes of action and went into halftime with 12 points.
Matt Pearson said a key defensive adjustment helped Wallace stay off the score sheet in the second half.
“We didn’t plan for Wallace to shoot a bunch, but in the second half we Chad Flemetis guard him and told him not to let him shoot anymore. I don’t think he made a shot after that,” he said.
The Vikings have to deal with a quick turnaround as they take on Toledo at 8 p.m. on Saturday at WF West High School in the district championship.
Willapa Valley plans on doing a walk through of the game plan on Saturday morning and doesn’t plan on running a full practice to give players time to recover.
Coach Pearson said he expects his team to recover and hit the floor with the same intensity that has got his team to this point.
“At the end of the season things didn’t go our way. We lost to Ilwaco and people started to doubt us. I told them that before the district tournament, that there is only one thing left to do,” he said. “I told them we had to play with a chip on our shoulder and win this thing. And we’re one game away from accomplishing our goal.”
Willapa Valley 28 9 7 24 – 68
Life Christian Academy 21 13 17 13 – 64
Top Players: Willapa Valley – Walker (30 pts.), Pearson (24 pts.); Wallace (12 pts.), Maulana (17 pts.), Noah Robinson (14 pts.)
1A Boys District Tournament Consolation
Montesano 66, Hoquiam 38
Hoquiam couldn’t find the shooting touch and fell behind to a Montesano team that came out hot in a 66-38 loss on Friday in the 1A District IV Tournament.
The loss eliminated Hoquiam (11-12) from the postseason and allowed Montesano (14-10) to advance to the next stage of the consolation bracket where the Bulldogs lost to Seton Catholic.
Coming off of a win against Stevenson on Thursday night, Hoquiam tried to keep the momentum going against the Bulldogs, but couldn’t hit shots early on.
Hoquiam shot 2-of-11 in the first quarter and found itself down 20-5 after eight minutes of play.
Monte had a commanding 37-11 lead at the half, but Hoquiam showed some signs of life in the third quarter where the Grizzlies outscored the Bulldogs 20-15.
Sam Winter’s scoring played a big role in helping Montesano build its lead by scoring 21 points.
Though the effort was not enough to close the gap in the final period, Hoquiam benefited from Matt Brown’s scoring as the center put up 13 points.
Hoquiam will have its top three leading scorers returning next season and Hoquiam head coach Curtis Eccles thinks his seniors deserve credit for guiding the program in the right direction.
“I wanted to extend my thanks to my seniors. They’re going to be missed,” he said “This is not where we wanted to be but our senior leadership helped us make strides from where we were last year.”
Hoquiam 5 6 20 7 – 38
Montesano 20 17 15 14 – 66
Top Players: Hoquiam – Brown (13 pts.) Cameron Bumstead (12 pts.), Rayyon Dayton ( 6 reb.); Montesano – Sam Winter (21 pts.).
Willapa Valley’s Logan Walker hits a layup while being fouled in the fourth quarter. Walker converted on the and-one opportunity to tie the game at 55-55 on Friday. (Hasani Grayson | Grays Harbor News Group)
Willapa Valley’s Peter Hamilton (5) celebrates with Logan Walker (2) after Walker hit a contested layup late in the fourth quarter against Ilwaco on Friday. (Hasani Grayson | Grays Harbor News Group)
