19th Annual
North Central District "A"
Boys Basketball Tournament
1976

Champ

ionship

Febr

uary 27

Lake Ro
(21

osevelt
-1)

Score

: 94-74

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Chelan 84, Ephrata 59
Game 1. (Loser out)
At Chelan, WA

Chelan's Firehouse Five and Cashmere's patient, young Bulldogs take on the top two teams from the Caribou Trail League as the North Central District Class "A" basketball tournament moves into double-elimination play here tonight.
Kacy Goble, a 5-11 senior guard, put on a fantastic shooting exhibition and Matt Hammons, a hustling 6-4 post, dominated the boards in playing major roles in Chelan's win.
Goble showed an uncanny shooting touch from long range in pouring in 17 field goals in 27 attempts en route to a 36-point total.
Hammons swept the boards for 25 rebounds as Chelan claimed the staggering total of 53 rebounds, in all compared to just 27 for Ephrata.
It wasn't just a Goble-Hammons show, though, as the Goats performed well as a unit.
"As a five-man unit, we're pretty strong," said Chelan coach Gary Goble.
"I'm real happy," he said. He was mainly happy because he was able to give his reserves some tournament playing time. "We got everybody into the ball game. That's valuable experience," he said.
Said losing Ephrata coach Jim Livengood of the Chelan Goats, "They're an excellent club. I'm extremely impressed with them."
"Gary's done a good job of molding them."
Livengood conceding that Goble, Hammons and guard Kim Huffer may get a lot of notoriety, added that " a lot of people overlook Clark and Bigelow."
Doug Bigelow is one of the Goats' big men at 6-4 and an improving junior.
Bill Clark had the unenviable task of defending Tim Lowry, the state scoring leader. It wasn't a good bowing-out performance for Lowry, who totaled 19 points.
The Goats and Tigers engaged in a fast-moving run-and-gun show, as reflected by the shooting figures.
The Goats popped in 38 field goals in 68 attempts for near 60 percent accuracy. Ephrata, meantime, made only 25 of its 78 shots for 32 percent.
Chelan broke it open in the second quarter with a 14-of-21 field goal shooting exhibition and 14-6 dominance of the boards.
Ephrata, led by reserve Hal Killian, made its first six shots of the second quarter to trail by only 24-20 just before mid-period, but the Tigers missed their next eight shots while Chelan was dumping in a flurry of field goals.
Chelan carried a 42-25 lead into intermission, led by a 56-32 at one stage of the third quarter and by a staggering 80-51 when coach Goble cleared the bench.

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Cashmere 53, Omak 48
Game 2. (Loser out)
At Chelan, WA

In sharp contrast to the Chelan-Ephrata run-and-gun war, the Cashmere-Omak game was strategically a duel of two zone defenses, a methodical game for the most part. That's the way Omak likes to play it.
"Although he'd like to play a running game," said Cashmere coach Bill Kelly. "You end up slowing it down, playing that (Omak) style.
"They control the game so much with the tempo. They rock you to sleep."
Although he wasn't overly impressed by his team's shooting against the Omak zone, he said he was "really pleased" with the performance of his all-underclassman ball club. "We knew it was going to be tough,"
Three of his starters went all the way and Mark Johnson, who injured a finger in pre-game drills was out for just 18 seconds.
Kelly credited the accurate free throw shooting of Johnson in the last two minutes with securing the win.
Johnson twice went to the line, sinking a pair both times, and Phil Barnhart sandwiched in two other free throws as Cashmere was expanding a four-point lead to a more comfortable eight in the closing two minutes.
Omak used an effective 2-1-2, with a two-man sag on Barnhart in the middle, to bottle up Cashmere in the first half. But Omak was throwing the ball away too much and the result was an 18-15 Cashmere lead at the break.
The Pioneers, who worked the ball well all night against Cashmere's 3-2 zone only to miss a number of lay-ins in the first half, opened second-half play with some productive offense.
Led by 6-4 Dave Doust, a sophomore who was moved up from the junior varsity at end of the season, Omak constructed a four-point lead, forcing Cashmere to go man-to-man.
And then came the game's key play which turned things around.
Cashmere's Dale Flick missed the second of two free throws, then stole the ball away when Omak rebounded. He shoveled it to Barnhart who put it up for two points and was fouled. Barnhart converted that three-point play, lifting Cashmere to a 30-30 tie with 1:35 remaining in the third quarter. Omak took the lead once more before Cashmere rang up three straight field goals.
Flick struck from outside at the buzzer, giving Cashmere a 36-32 lead, which the Bulldogs were able to protect.
Although Kelly wasn't happy with the shooting, statistically both teams hit better than 40 percent. Cashmere connected 21 times in 48 tries, Omak 20 in 48 attempts. With Doust and Doug Holt forming a devastating combination underneath in the first half, Omak built a 28-23 edge on the boards.
Barnhart finished with 17 points. Keith Collins with 13 points and Johnson with 12. Kelvin Davis and Doust scored 13 apiece for Omak.
"We couldn't get the ball in the hole," said Omak coach Jim Brucker. "Defensively," he said, Omak "did a good job in the first half... We didn't anticipate not being able to score."
He had praise for his big sophomore, Doust, making his first start. "He was a little nervous."
"I wish we could have got the ball to him more."
Brucker paid tribute to his ball club, which lost its home court in a fire last fall. "They've (his players) had to play under some awfully tough conditions, not having a home court."

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Lake Roosevelt 87, Chelan 68
Game 3.
At Chelan, WA

League champion Lake Roosevelt from Coulee Dam wore down a hot-shooting Chelan team in the third quarter and went on to a convincing victory.
Lake Roosevelt coach Jerry Riggan termed the Raider' winning performance "an overall effort."
"I kind of figured it take about three quarters to run them down," Riggan said. "It took two and a half."
A combination of Lake Roosevelt's strong board play and its press broke the game open in the third quarter after Chelan had posted a 42-40 halftime lead.
Lake Roosevelt, after that torrid first-half exchange, outscored Chelan, 12-2 in the first three minutes of the third quarter. With two minutes to play in the period, the Raiders owned a 62-52 lead and Chelan could no longer maintained the pace.
Chelan's Firehouse Five had stung Lake Roosevelt with a sizzling 10-of-14 field goal shooting outburst in the second quarter to lead by as much as six on one occasion. Kim Huffer's basket just before the halftime buzzer gave the Goats their last lead at 42-40.
Kacy Goble, with six field goals, all from ranges to 18 to 25 feet, led Chelan's second-period offensive wave.
"As soon as we started getting the ball out quicker (on the rebound), the momentum started going our way," Riggan said, referring to the Raiders' third-quarter take-over.
"We just ran out of man-power," said Chelan coach Gary Goble. The Raiders' stronger bench was a key to Lake Roosevelt's 19th straight victory.
"They have good bench strength. They rotated fresh guys in there."
"They're a fine ball club," Goble said of the Raiders. "We have nothing to be ashamed of. I was really proud of the kids. They stayed in there with them."
While the Raiders were canning 37-of-80 shots. Chelan was sinking 28-of-61. The Goats with Matt Hammons and Doug Bigelow working furiously underneath were dead-even, at 36 apiece, with the Raiders on the boards.
Goble led all scorers with 28 points.
And Goble concluded: "We've got the hard road now."

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Quincy 69, Cashmere 66
Game 4.
At Chelan, WA

Quincy combined strong board play, making its fast-break attack click with an effective 1-2-2 zone defense and near 54 percent shooting to charge into the championship game.
But the young Cashmere team, the reigning champion, put up stiff resistance before relinquishing its district title.
Down by 10 points early in the fourth quarter and by nine with 2:28 to play, the Bulldogs refused to quit. They had three opportunities in the last three minutes to either (1) get the momentum or (2) tie the game.
Cashmere surged back from a 66-57 deficit at the 2:28 mark to close Quincy's lead to a shaky two points with 1:04 to play.
After some stalling, and a timeout by Quincy, Cashmere's Keith Collins stole the ball near mid-court, had a man between him and the basket and put up a short jump shot. It missed and Paul Collard, a key man for Quincy all evening, rebounded.
Cashmere's Phil Barnhart rebounded a missed Quincy free throw (the second of a one-and-one) to set the stage for a basket from 20-feet out by Collins with seven seconds remaining, making it 67-66.
Cashmere, somehow, got a timeout with five seconds remaining, but Pete Zimbelman wrapped up the win for Quincy when he sank two free throws after an intentional foul.
Quincy coach Jim Spence felt that Quincy "missed some lay-ins that could have broken it open," but he added, "I think both teams shot real well, I'd hate to play them again tomorrow night."
Spence said he is grateful the way his team, which includes two sophomores and a junior on the first six, has progressed. The Jackrabbits now own a six-game winning streak.
One of those sophomores, gifted Mike Royer, had a sensational shooting night. Quincy statisticians had Royer hitting 14-of-28 shots. He totaled 29 points. He particularly deadly from the corners, but he proved to be very effective on drives in this game. Collard came through with 14 points.
Robbie Field played the middle man in the 2-1-2 zone that collapsed on Barnhart, cutting down his effectiveness. Finally, Cashmere coach Bill Kelly was forced to move Barnhart outside the zone.
Spence received good board play from several players as Quincy showed a 33-27 rebounding advantage. The second and third quarters were decisive on the boards. It was during these two periods that Quincy out-rebounded Cashmere by a 21-10 margin.
With Gary Heintz igniting the Quincy attack, the Jackrabbits overcame an early 11-4 Cashmere lead and rolled to a 26-17 advantage as Royer scored the first five points of the second quarter.
Cashmere never was able to regain the lead, but stayed close through the third quarter. Down by 10 early in the fourth quarter, Cashmere struggled back to within four, enjoyed the advantage of a Quincy turnover at that point, then missed the shot which might have given the Bulldogs the momentum.
"We had our chances," Kelly admitted.
He had particular praise for Mark Johnson, who "played well." Johnson finished with 22 points, and Barnhart collected 19.
Cashmere shot respectably, hitting nearly 50 percent for three quarters and finishing with 28 field goals in 66 tries.

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Cashmere 60, Chelan 57
Game 5. (Loser out)
At Chelan, WA

Victimized twice by the Goats this season, Cashmere's young Bulldogs, the defending State A champs, shocked Chelan to another crack at Quincy.
Rookie Garth Johnson, a 5-8 sophomore, gave Cashmere an immense lift in his first starting role. The diminutive Johnson playing with the poise of a seasoned veteran, scored 13 points and grabbed the game's biggest rebound with less than a minute to play. Johnson's previous contribution to the Cashmere varsity, he came off this years Bulldog JV power, was 33 points in 12 outings.
Johnson's spirited play typified the Bulldogs' fired-up performance.
Cashmere seized command in the second period, pumping in 24 points to build a 38-27 halftime lead, then somehow managed to keep its composure when the Goats, realizing Cashmere came to play, generated a furious fourth quarter rally. Chelan's Firehouse Five inched ahead, 55-54, on Matt Hammons jumper from the foul line with 1:55 to play.
Phil Barnhart countered Hammons shot 20 seconds later with a short jumper from the baseline, putting the Bulldogs back on top 56-55.
Then came Johnson's big moment. He fouled Hammons, but quickly atoned by out-scrapping Chelan's Doug Bigelow for the rebound when Hammons missed the bonus free throw situation.
Keith Collins drilled in a 15-footer from the side, then after Bigelow muscled in an offensive rebound to bring the Goats to within one point, Dale Flick drove past two defenders to lay in the clinching basket.
The Bulldogs' starting five went the entire distance, scrapping all the way and doing a brilliant defensive job on Kacy Goble.
Mark Johnson, no relation to Garth, shadowed Goble all evening. Eventually, Goble started forcing his shots and finished with only 19 points. He downed nine field goals in 22 attempts.
Cashmere's tenacious defense also forced the Goats into several costly turnovers.
Both teams totaled 27 field goals, Cashmere in 63 attempts, Chelan in 57 tries.
The Bulldogs, although sacrificing the rebounding strength of Rick Etzkorn and Joel Clark, were out-rebounded by only a 35-31 count.
Although few free throws were taken, Cashmere's six of nine reading, all in the first half, proved to be the difference. Chelan went three-of-five at the line.
Barnhart totaled 23 points lead all scorers. Hammons backed Goble with 14.
Of Note: Chelan coach Gary Goble had nothing but compliments for Cashmere.
"He (Kelly) had his kids ready to go," Goble said. "You usually can't count on young kids to perform under pressure the way they did. They deserve a lot of credit. They were disciplined."
Goble said his Goats "weren't expecting Cashmere to take it to us like that. We weren't ready. The kids got behind and it takes too much effort to come back. You've got to play twice as hard."
Goble added that "my kids worked so hard all year, I wanted so much for them to be rewarded with a trip to Tacoma. But that's part of basketball. Maybe this experience will help us in the future."

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Lake Roosevelt 94, Quincy 74
Game 6. (Championship, winner to state)
At Chelan, WA

The Caribou Trail League, a dominating conference in the State Class A basketball tournament in recent seasons, should once again be powerfully represented when the annual classic at the Puget Sound Fieldhouse unfolds next Wednesday.
Coach Jerry Riggan's Lake Roosevelt Raiders buried Quincy in the North Central District "A" championship test here Friday night. They did it in overwhelming fashion to attain their 20th straight victory, all against tough Caribou opposition.
"They are Number 1, what else can you say."
That comment by Quincy coach Jim Spence expressed his feelings pretty well after the Jackrabbits had succumbed to the powerful Raiders.
The Jackrabbits, who prefer to run with any team, were no match for the "Raider Wave," urged on by a boisterous rooting section.
The Raiders, who have a big front-line with speed and shooting ability to go along with their size, literally ran the Jackrabbits out of the gym.
Lake Roosevelt uncorked an unbelievable 95 shots, sinking 41. The Raiders outscored Quincy by 38 points from the field. Quincy bagged only 22 of 70 shots against the Raiders intimidating defense.
Quincy kept the game respectable by sinking 28-of-33 free throws.
"We intended to run, but at our speed, not theirs, Spence said.
Riggan, whose enthusiasm is reflected by his players said:
"They believed all year they could do it, and so did I. I love these kids. They're like my own kids."
The Raiders, ahead 25-20 after a face-paced first period, put the game away in the second quarter with a 28-point blitz, vaulting them into a 53-36 halftime bulge.
The Raiders, an unselfish team without any stars, did receive one super-star performance. Eric Hixon, developed slowly by Riggan during the last three years, picked a perfect night to play the game of his life.
Hixon, coming off the bench, pumped in 12 points during the Raiders' second-quarter explosion and went on to a career-high 24 points out-put. Hixon picked a spot, about 15 feet out along the baseline, and drilled shot-after-shot through the netting. He also was the first man fast-breaking down-court on many occasions.
Two other forwards, Greg Jones and Bob Bjorkland, joined in with some baseline artistry similar to Hixon's. With Brian Barnaby and John Pariseau, the Raiders expert engineering guards, feeding them. Jones and Bjorkland each tossed in 12 points.
When the Raiders' shot did miss the mark, veteran three-year starter Jeff Loe was there to sweep the offensive board and muscle the ball back in. Loe finished with 19 points.
Quincy's strong early showing was keyed by Paul Collard, who bagged three straight field goals to draw the Jackrabbits within three points, 23-20. Although Pete Zimbelman joined Collard for some accurate free throw shooting, Quincy managed only two field goals in the second quarter.
By halftime it was obvious that Quincy was going to have a tangle with Cashmere again.
Zimbelman, hitting 11 free throws, led Quincy scorers with 17 points and Mike Royer had 16. Collard finished with 12 while reserve Kirk Poldervart did a good job in the second half to wind up with 14.
The Raiders bagged their first five shots of the fourth quarter, Hixon connecting three times, before Riggan turned the game completely over to his reserves. Rich Evans, Craig Loe and Perry Smick made sure the momentum favored the Raiders in the final minutes, before that traditional post-championship game celebration.

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Cashmere 50, Quincy 41
Game 7. (winner to state, loser out)
At Chelan, WA

Upstart Cashmere will be on hand to defend its State Class A basketball championship when the firing commences Wednesday morning at the Puget Sound Fieldhouse in Tacoma.
Cashmere, a fifth-place finisher in the Caribou Trail League race during the regular season, claimed the North Central District's number two berth to the State "A" tourney by turning back Quincy as the district tournament came to a close here Saturday night.
In another typical, refuse-to-be-beaten effort by this young Cashmere team, the orange-clad Bulldogs bolted from behind in the fourth quarter and took advantage of an extended Quincy scoring famine to win the second-place battle.
Cashmere will be making its third straight late tourney appearance under coach Bill Kelly and its fifth Tacoma trip in the past six years.
The Bulldogs won the whole bundle last year in Tacoma, but only one starter, Phil Barnhart, returns from that team. This is a different Cashmere ball club. It has four juniors and a sophomore coming off the bench initially.
Cashmere accomplished this second-place feat, behind district champion Lake Roosevelt, in spite of a miserable 26.5 percent shooting mark against Quincy.
The Bulldogs did it by reeling off 15 straight points at the outset of the fourth quarter.
"These guys may be underclassmen, but they don't know when they're beat," said Cashmere coach Bill Kelly. Especially gratifying to him, he said, was the fact that Cashmere, a fifth-place club, knocked off three of the teams, Quincy, Chelan and Omak, that finished above them in the standings.
"I'm really proud of them." Because of the underdog situation, he said, this was "one of the best wins I've ever had."
He praised Quincy, saying "they're good kids."
"Four times we played them and we've split, two an two. We just won the big one."
Kelly credited a Cashmere press with igniting the fourth-quarter comeback after the Bulldogs have fallen seven points (38-31) off the pace.
"Keith Collins did a heckofa job on that press." He noted that Collins made several steals in the fourth quarter. He was credited with six steals in all.
"Again, Mark Johnson did  a good job."
Quincy, as it had done in its previous tournament meeting (a 69-66 Quincy victory) with Cashmere, kept the defensive pressure on Barnhart.
But the smallish pivot-man (he's listed at 6-1) still managed to wriggle free of the 2-1-2 double-teaming zone to score 18 points.
On sheer hustle alone, Barnhart scored two important baskets during Cashmere's fourth-quarter surge and fed Dale Flick for another basket.
Quincy, aroused against a technical foul assessed against Mike Royer early in the second half, played with extreme intensity through the third quarter, going on a fast break rampage to overcome a 29-24 Cashmere lead. Quincy scored the last three baskets of the quarter, two by Royer from far out, to bolt ahead 38-31.
But the Quincy momentum suddenly died and Jim Spence's Jackrabbits went scoreless for more than six minutes. Their first and only basket of the fourth quarter was scored by Pete Zimbelman with 2:52 to play in the game. By then the Bulldogs owned a 46-40 lead and shifted to a control game.
The Jackrabbits had only eight shooting attempts in the fourth quarter.
"I think what happened is that we went into the press at the start of the fourth quarter," said Kelly in explaining the turn-around.
Kelly was proud of the way his players worked the boards.
"As small as we are, I think we rebounded with them," he said.
Quincy showed a 41-39 rebounding edge.
Robbie Field turned in a strong game for the Jacks rebounding hard and working for all his shots. He plunked in five field goals in the first half for his game-total of 10 points. Zimbelman led the Quincy scoring with 12.
The Quincy attack was hurting after Field fouled out with 5:27 to go.
Both teams made 18 field goals, Cashmere in 68 attempts (26.5%) and Quincy in 53 (34%).
Cashmere made only 12-of-52 shots over the first three quarters.