51st Annual
North Central District "A"
Boys' Basketball Tournament
2008

At Chelan High School

Cascade
(12-9)

Score: 56-34

 Game 3.
6:00pm

Lake Roosevelt
(18-4)

Score: 59-44

#2 Lake Roosevelt
(17-4)

 Game 8.
7:30pm

Lake Roosevelt
(19-4)

#5 Brewster
(12-8)

Score: 57-51

Brewster
(13-8)

Score: 69-41

 Game 4.
7:30pm

Chelan (2nd)
(18-3)

Score: 61-56

#1 Chelan
(17-3)

Cascade (4th)
(12-10)

Brewster (3rd)
(14-9)

Score: 51-43

Cascade-Leavenworth 56, Omak 34
Game 1.
At Leavenworth, WA

The Kodiaks jumped out to an 18-4 lead in the first quarter and never looked back in their 22-point victory over Omak in Leavenworth.
A major disparity in shooting performances was the overwhelming difference. Cascade held the Pioneers to just 24.6 percent shooting, while the Kodiaks were 52.8 percent for the game.
"Our defensive intensity was really high tonight," Cascade coach Paul Fraker said. "On offense we were making the extra pass and we were pretty selective on our shots."
Fialele Coffin led the Kodiaks with 13 points and six assists and Blaine Dawson chipped in 12 points and eight rebounds.
Kyle Thornton had eight points and 10 boards to lead the Pioneers.
Cascade will play Lake Roosevelt in the semifinals on Friday.

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Brewster 69, Cashmere 41
Game 2.
At Cashmere, WA

Maybe it's just because it's the postseason, but the Brewster boys' basketball team looked dangerously close to being its old self in a 69-41 dismantling of Cashmere in Tuesday's first-round action of the North Central District "A" boys basketball tournament — and the Bears even got a few minutes out of point guard Wade Gebbers, on the mend from a broken foot.
"This team's really capable of playing well and capable of playing not so well," Brewster coach Tim Taylor said. "It's been a lot more consistent the last couple of weeks."
Bryce Scheller set the tone early for Brewster, scoring eight of his game-high 14 points in the first quarter to give the Bears a 10-point lead. His presence, along with post Cole Youngers established in the middle, helped Brewster settle into a fluid-looking motion offense, which has been its trademark for years. Youngers finished with 11 points.
Cashmere went on an 8-2 run to open the second quarter, cutting Brewster's lead to 23-19. Taylor Ward, the Bulldogs' 6-foot-4 post and the tallest player on the floor, scored four of his team-high 13 points and grabbed a couple of big rebounds during the stretch. But Cashmere's momentum vanished as quickly as it appeared, and the Bulldogs were never in it again.
"We got that little spurt and that was it," Cashmere coach Mike Carlquist said. "Their kids played real well — took good shots and made their shots."
The Bears scored 16 of the last 18 points in the half, including five from Gebbers, who played about four minutes in the first quarter and another couple in the second.
"I really liked seeing them respond that way," Taylor said.
Gebbers played the last 3:52 of the first quarter, missing his only two shots, clearly still getting his legs under him. But he was 2-for-2 on back-to-back possessions in his two minutes of the second quarter.
Stockton Taylor looked good coming in off the bench and chipped in 11 points for the Bears. Austin Benson added nine, and JR Jarrell eight, including a pair of 3-pointers in the second half.
Pedro Farias was a scoring threat early on for the Bulldogs, but disappeared in the second half and finished with eight points. Andrew Gubsch worked hard for his 10 points inside.
Brewster advances to face CTL champion Chelan in Friday's semifinals as the tournament continues in Chelan (only the first-round games were played at higher seeds). Chelan beat the Bears 61-52 in Brewster, but that was a week before Christmas. In their second meeting on Jan. 15, the Goats squeaked out a low-scoing, two-point win.
Cashmere will meet Omak tonight in loser-out play. The teams split their regular-season games — the Bulldogs won the first by 18, and the Pioneers the second by three in the season finale.

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Lake Roosevelt 59, Cascade-Leavenworth 44
Game 3.
At Chelan, WA

The Kodiaks couldn't overcome a poor shooting night or Lake Roosevelt's seemingly endless supply of all-around firepower.
The Raiders came out firing with 19 points in the opening quarter, led by Ed Wolfe who had 11 of his game-high 23 points. Lake Roosevelt dominated the Kodiaks on the boards 27-13 in the first in the first half en route to a 15-point halftime lead. Matt Pleasants accounted for a big portion of that, leading all players with 14 rebounds to go with his 12 points and three blocks. Wolfe had nine boards.
Coby Dick added nine points and five assists for the Raiders, and Garrett Carlson seven points.
Blaine Dawson and Fialele Coffin, Cascade's two best scoring options, struggled from the field and shot a combined 4-for-22. Both had seven rebounds to lead the team, and Coffin did manage 13 points. Dawson's six points matched his lowest output of the season. Jordan Weddle tacked on nine points, and Roberto Mendoza eight.

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Chelan 61, Brewster 56
Game 4.
At Chelan, WA

Just a little more than a week after the Chelan boys beat Lake Roosevelt for the Caribou Trail League title, the Goats and Raiders will square off again Saturday for the district title after both won their semfinal games on Friday. Chelan outlasted Brewster 61-56 in a fierce contest, and Lake Roosevelt just had too much for Cascade in a 59-44 win.
All four teams have earned trips to next week's regional tournament, but the winners will host their first-round games and the losers will travel.
The Goats and Bears battled back and forth, trading small runs throughout their game. After fighting to a 14-14 tie after the first quarter, things heated up in the second. The Bears opened the period with a 9-3 run en route to a 25-20 lead with 3:40 left before halftime. Brewster's Eli Driessen came off the bench to provide seven of those points during the run.
Then, Chelan countered with a 14-2 run of its own when 6-foot-5 senior forward Cam Reister caught fire in one of his best games of the year. Reister scored 11 points in a two-minute span in the second quarter, including a trio of 3-pointers to help the Goats race back out to a 29-25 lead with 2:15 left in the half. Reister did a little bit of everything to lead the way, twice almost single-handedly forcing Brewster coach Tim Taylor to call timeouts.
"He was off the charts," Chelan coach Joe Harris said of Reister, who finished with 19 points, his second-best outing of the season. "He's a great athlete and one of our better leapers."
The Goats took advantage of a disorganized Brewster defense in the closing minutes of the first half and led 35-30 at the break, with two big points coming on a buzzer-beating layup by CTL scoring leader Joe Harris that was set up by a Zane Sandum steal. Harris finished with 21 points. Sandum contributed six points and eight rebounds.
"Guys were mixed up and didn't know what defense they were in — meanwhile, they're making baskets," Taylor said. "We've got to get on the same page."
Despite struggling mightily from the foul line in the second half (5-for-14 for the game), Brewster clawed its way back to a 44-43 lead with 2:33 left in the third quarter, when post Cole Youngers finished off a 3-point play at the line. Youngers was a force in the middle all night, totaling 23 points and 10 rebounds to lead all players. But Chelan beat the Bears on the boards after the break and forced them to work harder on offense to find open shots, many possessions ending without bearing fruit.
"We played pretty solid defense all night and didn't give up a whole lot of second shots," coach Harris said.
Brewster kept it close down the stretch, but Chelan made just enough free throws to keep the Bears from getting over the hump. Brewster also couldn't buy a 3-pointer in the final period with only Austin Benson connecting once. The Bears finished just 3-for-14 from beyond the arc. Benson hit two on his way to 12 points.
Outstanding point guard Wade Gebbers still did not start but continued to receive more playing time with four points and three steals.
"We've got to have him out there on one leg or on two," Taylor said.

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Omak 70, Cashmere 58
Game 5. (Loser out)
At Chelan, WA

Isaac Bessette canned five 3-pointers in the first half en route to a 25-point night, leading the Omak Pioneers to a 70-58 win over Cashmere in a North Central District "A" tournament loser-out contest Wednesday.
Bessette's previous season-high was just 14 points, but with the Bulldogs concentrated mostly on forward Kyle Thornton and guards Jordan George, Francis Orozco and Jeremiah Riggle, the 5-foot-7 sophomore was able to net 19 points by halftime.
"Bessette wasn't a major focus, but he had a great game," Cashmere head coach Mike Carlquist said.
Omak opened up a big lead with a 20-7 second quarter.
Pedro Farias led Cashmere with 18 points and Andrew Gubsch had 14. On defense, Gubsch was able to keep Thornton, Omak's leading scorer, to just three points.
The loss ends an up-and-down season for the Bulldogs, which started with a nine-game losing streak but included a midseason winning streak and upset wins over Brewster and Lake Roosevelt.

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Brewster 51, Cascade-Leavenworth 43
Game 6. (Winner 3rd to regional, Loser 4th)
At Chelan, WA

Cascade led 21-19 at halftime, but the Bears exploded for 20 points in the third quarter behind point guard Wade Gebbers and never looked back in the third-fourth place game. Gebbers, who had eight points in the period, has been gradually working up his playing time while recovering from a broken foot that was surgically repaired last month.
The Kodiaks also turned it up offensively in the second half but couldn't keep up with Brewster's pace. Blaine Dawson had 11 of his team-high 16 points in the third, and Jordan Weddle scored all eight of his points after the break.
Whatever hopes the Kodiaks may have had down the stretch were squashed by a 12-point effort from Brewster's Austin Benson in the fourth quarter. He canned nine foul shots and a 3-pointer in the final period. Cole Youngers finished with 13 points.

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Colfax 62, Omak 47
Game 7. (winner to regional, loser out)
At Chelan, WA

The underdog and undersized Pioneers had Colfax on the ropes in the second quarter in the game that sent a fifth team to regionals, using fierce defensive play from Francis Orozco and Jordan George en route to a 24-14 lead. But after a couple of timeouts, Colfax was able to pull it together and close the first half on an 8-0 run and trailed by just two.
The Bulldogs opened the second half with another 8-0 run and buried Omak 21-4 in the third quarter.
Jared Berarducci exploded for 18 of his game-high 25 points after the break.
Kyle Thornton led Omak with 13 points, while Jeremiah Riggle added 11. George finished with eight.

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Lake Roosevelt 57, Chelan 51
Game 8. (Championship, both to regionals)
At Chelan, WA

Lake Roosevelt's Matt Pleasants picked a good time to turn in the most dominating performance of the season, leading the Raiders to a 57-51 win Saturday over Chelan in the North Central District championship game.
The Goats had no answer for Pleasants, who amassed 26 points — only four coming at the free-throw line — and an unbelievable 20 rebounds.
"I wanted it, man," the 6-foot-3 senior post said. "We really worked hard for this, and we deserved it. It feels great."
Even more remarkable was that 11 of Pleasants gaudy board total came on the offensive end, which repeatedly extended Raider possessions.
"He was a monster," said Lake Roosevelt coach Brad Wilson said. "That's one of the best rebounding performances we've ever had."
What's more is that the Raiders didn't often waste the extra chances, continuing to show their knack for always making the one extra pass to find the open look at the basket. Pleasants and fellow senior Coby Dick combined for 10 assists.
"We just have really good balance and try to emphasize finding the open guy," Wilson said.
The Raiders led 14-7 early on when Ed Wolfe scored nine of his 18 points in the first quarter, but Chelan's Derrick Talley came in to provide a spark in extended time off the bench in the first half. Talley had seven of his 11 points and three steals before halftime, leading the Goats back to within one at the break.
"He played real well again off the bench," Chelan coach Joe Harris said. "He's such a great athlete and makes things happen."
CTL leading scorer Joe Harris, who struggled in the first half with just four points, opened the second half with a basket that gave Chelan its first lead at 26-25. But that would the be the first and last lead for the Goats. Harris, the son of the head coach, finished with 19 points.
"We could never really get ourselves into a rhythm offensively or defensively," the sophomore guard said.
Mat Engstrom had seven points and 11 boards for Chelan. Brett Linehan added nine points.
Pleasants slammed the door on any possible Chelan comeback, scoring 12 points in the fourth quarter, six of them coming on three consecutive LR possessions to give his team its biggest lead at 53-44 with 1:09 left.
Pleasants says he and his teammates decided while playing together last summer that this is the year for big things.
"This is our last year together, so we've got to step it up," he said.

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