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Quincy 63, Tonasket 54
Game 9. (Loser out)
At Eastmont High School

Just when things were starting to go sour for the Quincy Jackrabbits, center Jay Taylor decided to take things into his own hands.
Quincy's rugged 6-4 senior objected to a rebounding foul and got slapped with a technical foul with five and a half minutes to play and his team trailing 48-42.
Tonasket's Ray Laurie misfired in the technical free throw and Taylor's teammates preceded to run off a string of 14 unanswered points, climbing out of a six-point grave and rolling to the win.
"He made 'em mad," Quincy coach Jim Spence said, referring to the effect. Taylor's dispute had on the Jackrabbit players. "That kind of fired the kids up."
Spence was also impressed with the effect his team's full-court pressure had on Tonasket in the pivotal quarter. The Jacks had pressed throughout the first three periods without amazing success, but after Taylor's outburst, Quincy forced eight turnovers by the Tigers.
"We increased the pressure in the fourth quarter," said Spence. "We got some easy buckets off that press. The kids hung together and played real well together."
Reserve guard John Lindquist and forward Tom Bidon provided the bulk of the offense when the Jacks needed it most. Lindquist scored eight of his 14 points in the fourth quarter and Bidon hit for six of his 16.
Lindquist's 4-for-5 free throw shooting and breakaway lay-up in the last minute enabled Quincy to close out the victory.
Tonasket coach Tim Ochs stood in stunned silence at the entrance to his team's locker-room after the game. The Tigers had owned a six-point lead and possession of the ball with five and a half minutes to play. The also owned the backboards, controlling 40 rebounds for the game compared with 18 for Quincy.
"Two minutes of bad basketball," Ochs said softly. "But that'll happen to you down here. You have to play a full 32 minutes. We made a couple of turnovers and lost the momentum.
"I felt like we were in control the whole game. Then there was that momentum swing."
Ochs praised Tony Caddy for his superior defensive job on Quincy scoring leader Jeff Vordahl, who was held to 12 points on 4-for-14 shooting (two points and 0-for-7 at intermission). He also credited 6-6 starting post Scott Rise (12 points) and 6-5 reserve Brian McDonald (14 points, including 10 in the second quarter) with the Tigers share of the work around the boards.
And there was praise for the Quincy shooters.
"We wanted to force Lindquist and Wade Petersen to shoot the ball the ball and they shot pretty well," said Ochs.
Lindquist was 4-for-8 and Petersen had 10 points on 4-for-9 shooting. Both players were inside/outside threats.
Bidon also picked up the slack for Vordahl and Taylor (one-point versus a season average of 11.1), connecting on 7-of-12.
The first half was a virtual standoff as neither team led by more than four points. Laurie's jumper from the side at the intermission buzzer put Tonasket on top, 27-26.
Tonasket began asserting itself in the third period, taking a 42-34 advantage (its biggest of the game) on back-to-back put-backs by McDonald.
But Vordahl suddenly found his touch and clicked on two of three shots to finish out the third period and cut the Tigers' lead down to four.
Tonasket got it back up to six on a jumper from the outside by Michael Call, but then Taylor set off the spark that fueled the Jacks' comeback.

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Cascade-Leavenworth 57, Oroville 46
Game 10. (Loser out)
At Eastmont High School

Oroville's boisterous student section may have thought Cascade's play was "Borrring," but it was also "Eeee-fective" in the Kodiaks' victory.
The Kodiaks certainly aren't out to set the district record book on fire. They took a very selective 35 shots on Tuesday night against the Hornets... and they converted 21 for 60 percent, including 5-of-9 in the fourth period.
Ah yes, the fourth period. Crunch time and all that.
Cascade led by two points going into the final eight minutes of play and was on top by just 44-42 with 4:34 to go. But the stubborn Kodiak match-up zone put the crunch on Oroville's shooters (1-for-10 down the stretch).
Offensively, James Turner scored a big three-point play at the 3:21 mark which was followed up a short time later by Jim Saunders' driving lay-up off what Oroville fans referred to as Cascade's "Borrrring" four-corners offense.
The two big plays triggered a 9-2 Cascade run and Brett Holman, who air-balled a pair of one-and-ones earlier in the fourth period, helped seal the win by connecting on five of his last eight foul shots.
"Our kids play hard," said Cascade's first-year coach Jeff Reinland. "We've been a hard-luck team all year. But since District came along we've learned a lot."
The Kodiaks' two previous meetings with the Hornets were a microcosm of their season, a pair of heart-breaking two-point losses (one coming in overtime). But District is a new season and the new and improved Kodiaks proved they can win the close ones when everything is on the line.
Reinland also had a few new wrinkles to show off.
One of the "keys" for Cascade according to Reinland, was a baseline bucket by Saunders at the start of the final quarter. The play was a variation of one used throughout the season.
"It was a special play, we reversed it and brought him back (along the baseline) and he hit a big bucket that got us up by four," said Reinalnd.
The play of Turner was also special. The 6-3 junior post player, scored a career-high 15 points, hitting 7-for-7 from the floor on an assortment of put-backs and close in shots. He also converted his only free throw.
"That Turner kid killed us," said Oroville coach Allen Jefferson. "We basically said before the game, 'Don't worry about Turner,' So what's he do, he comes out and makes me look bad."
Still, with three minutes left and trailing by only three, Jefferson understandably felt his team could pull it out. (Neither team had built a lead bigger that seven points until four straight Holman foul shots made it 53-44 with 1:18 to go).
"We knew when (Reinland) called timeout what he was going to do four corners," said Jefferson.
"We just didn't have any execution on our part."
Turner paced the Kodiaks with his 15 points. Holman netted 13, Saunders (11 points, seven rebounds) and Cory Heins (12 points, eight rebounds) were aggressive around the boards.
The Hornets playing for the first time in a district tournament against a Leavenworth team, hit just 40 percent of their shots (16-for-40), Steve Rawley, a 6-0 junior came off the bench to book 12 points for Oroville, its lone double digit performance. Season scoring leaders Richie Kowatsch and Peter Lucas had a combined point total of 11.
"When it's all said and done, you'd like other coaches to say you out-worked 'em," said Jefferson, who suffered his first losing season in four years, 11-12. "I'm not sure we out-worked 'em. They worked hard on their match-up. But we worked hard on our (full-court) press." 

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Quincy 54, Cascade-Leavenworth 47
Game 11. (Loser out)
At Eastmont High School

Quincy posted a hard-fought win over Cascade to stay in the hunt for the district's other state berth.
The contest was marred by a fourth-quarter altercation between Quincy's John Lindquist and Cascade's Cory Heins, resulting in the disqualification of both players.
Quincy turned a near free-for-all into a free throw shooting contest as the Jackrabbits registered a elimination game victory over Cascade.
The Jackrabbits went to the foul line exclusively in the final two and a half minutes, sinking 10-of-17 attempts and staying alive in the hunt for the district's second state tourney berth.
But things were not so orderly with 4:44 to go, when Cascade's Cory Heins and Quincy's John Lindquist got caught up in the emotion-charged atmosphere of the crowded Eastmont High School gym. Heins and Lindquist got tangled up in a chase for a loose ball and Heins came up swinging.
After referees George Webster and Mike Johnson restored order, both players were banished from the game.
"I felt the officials let the game get out of control," said Cascade coach Jeff Reinland. "In a game like this you can't let that happen.
"If our kids are at fault, they'll hear about it."
Quincy coach Jim Spence declined to "get into a discussion of the referring," but did say felt Lindquist "got the short end of the stick" because Heins was the aggressor.
The referees did spend most of the last two minutes blowing their whistles. Cascade fouled almost everytime Quincy got the ball, a desperate attempt to reduce the Jackrabbits' nine-point lead.
The cascade of infractions mounted until the Kodiaks' Mike Waters and Ed Michael also joined teammate Heins on the bench.
Both clubs had traded buckets throughout the first half, with Quincy taking a 25-21 intermission lead on Jeff Vordahl's baseline jumper with two seconds showing.
The Jacks then threatened to make it a runaway in the third period when they scored the first 12 points of the quarter and had the Kodiaks shut out until Waters connected along the baseline six and a half minutes into the second half. Quincy's Tom Bidon fired in eight of his 14 points during the Jackrabbits' run which put them up by 16 before Waters' shot.
The Kodiaks refused to exit the district tourney without a fight. Cascade's comeback hit its peak when Michael converted a three-point play with 5:20 remaining, pulling the Kodiaks within five, and later connecting on a foul shot to make it 42-38, Jacks.
But that's as close as the Kodiaks got.
Vordahl, who led Quincy with 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting, canned a shot from inside the key, and Jay Turner, who spent most of the game on the foul line, converted three of four free throws to give the Jacks a more comfortable 47-38 margin.
"The kids played real well," said Spence. "We wanted to take Jim Saunders (Cascade's top scoring threat) out of the offense. We figured if we could stop him, that really puts a burden on everyone else."
Quincy's packed in zone defense proved fatal to Saunders, who led the Kodiaks with 14 points, but shot 6-for-19 from the field.
Waters and Heins tried to pick up the slack with Waters hitting from the perimeter and Heins aggressively crashing the boards and tossing in put-backs. Waters finished with 13 points on 5-for-10 shooting, and Heins was 5-for-9 for 10 points.
Cascade's 17 turnovers, mostly against Quincy's full-court pressure, and a foul shooting deficit proved to be too much to overcome.
The final tally showed Quincy going 22-for-33 at the line (10-for-18 in the last quarter), while the Kodiaks made only 5-of-9.
Vordahl had an outstanding game, including 13 rebounds, three assists and a blocked shot.
Spence praised his players for overcoming Cascade for the third straight time. Quincy won a pair of four-pointers during the regular season.
"Our kids have handled (Cascade's) match-up (zone defense) well, he said. "That's a real credit to our kids."
"We can't match-up man-to-man with Quincy (Cascade switched to man-to-man in the third period)," said Reinland, who guided the Kodiaks to the district's final four in his first season as coach. "Eventually it catches up with you." 

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Cashmere 59, Ephrata 46
Game 12. (Championship, winner to state)
At Eastmont High School

Cashmere lived up to its lofty pre-season notices and claimed the boys North Central District "A" basketball championship at the jam-packed Eastmont High School gym Friday night.
The Bulldogs held off Ephrata, which was seeking its first district title, for a 59-46 victory. It was Cashmere's 10th district basketball championship celebration in 23 tourney appearances. Cashmere, 22-1, claimed its 14th State "A" tournament berth.
Following the championship game, Cashmere coach Bill Kelly who is stepping down after 13 years of coaching the Bulldogs, accepted the district trophy and was marched around the floor on the shoulders of his players. In accepting the title for the team, Kelly thanked the community for its "strong support of athletics."
Ephrata opted to play Cashmere's game, but the Bulldogs proved they're the best when it comes to playing patient offense.
The two clubs played almost dead-even in the first three quarters of the district championship before Cashmere made its move in the fourth period. The Bulldogs connected on 9-of-13 field goal tries in "crunch time" and closed out the win.
"Ephrata didn't come out and press us like they did before (in 19 and 31 point losses during the regular season)," said Cashmere coach Bill Kelly. "They showed a lot more discipline tonight. They are a good basketball team.
Said Ephrata coach Marty O'Brien: "We played smart, I thought we were aggressive. We sure competed in there (rebounding). We weren't intimidated... we were much more poised this time than we were the first two games."
The Tigers stayed close until Cashmere's final period pull-away. Ephrata actually enjoyed as much as a five-point lead in the second quarter as Charlie Carlson fired in 13 points to pace the Tigers. He finished with 22 to lead the Basin club.
But Cashmere battled back as 6-9 center Brian Paine, who led the Bulldogs for the night with 23 points and eight rebounds, collaborated on a six-point run with Aaron Kelly, giving the 'Dogs an intermission lead (23-22) that they never relinquished. Paine scored on a short range jumper and a lay-up off a feed from Kelly, and Kelly nailed a long range jumper in the final minutes prior to intermission.
Ephrata hung tough in the second half, but Cashmere forward Eric James fired in two jump shots from the corner to open the fourth period and the Tigers were suddenly down by eight.
"That kid has to be there," Kelly said of James, a valuable shooter who took just one shot in the first half. "He hit those two (in the fourth period) and then they went out on him... and we were up by 10 (43-33) just like that. That was a key spurt for us."
The run didn't end until Paine hit a put-back with two and a half minutes to play, expanding the lead to 14 points.
James wound up connecting for seven of his 13 points in the fourth period.
But O'Brien detected trouble back in the third period, when his team went through an 0-for-7 shooting slump and slipped from one point back to four. It was a quarter that Gary Hagy, co-scoring leader during the season with Carlson, spent most of the quarter on the bench with four fouls.
"We just went dry," O'Brien said of the third period drought when his team was a collective 2-for-12. "It just got away from us a little bit. Hagy drawing his fourth foul was a big key."
Cashmere's Craig Wise was the guy responsible for Hagy's foul problems. Hagy's last three fouls all came on offensive charges, number 4 drawn by Wise early in the second half (sending Hagy to the bench for more that six minutes) and number 5  with a minute to play. No wonder Kelly calls Wise "one of the best defensive players I've coached."
"I thought Wise should've had a couple more charges," said Kelly. "We work hard on that."
The Bulldogs were in a shooting slump of their own through the first three quarters, hitting just 37 percent from the field. But the Bulldogs sparked by James' jumpers, went on a final period binge that improved their shooting to 45 percent (23-for-51) for the game.
Paine was the leader, hitting an assortment of soft-touch jumpers and put-back. The big guy converted 10-of-15 field goal tries. James drilled 5-of-11 shots.
Ephrata never escaped its shooting difficulties, finishing with a 26 percent mark (13-for-51). Carlson went 6-for-20 from the floor (10-for-11) at the foul line and Hagy was 3-for-11. Scott Smith was the only other offensive threat for the Tigers, netting 11 points.
Dale Hagy, another fine shooter for the Tigers, played just a few minutes due to a stress fracture and never scored.
"We did a good job of giving 'em just one shot," said Kelly, noting that Ephrata got just three offensive rebounds in the first half.
The Bulldogs controlled the boards, out-rebounding the Tigers 37-30. Everybody shared in the chores as Paine was closely followed in rebounds by Wise, John Lippert and Marc Pflugrath (each with seven), and James with six.
Wise did a little bit of everything hitting 3-of-7 shots, making 7-of-10 free throws, dishing out six steals, collecting a couple of steals and drawing several offensive charges.
O'Brien expressed pride in the efforts of 6-1 Jon McCreary and 6-4 Greg Hewitt around the boards and of Carlson's overall floor play.
"Cashmere was just a little more consistent the whole ball game," said O'Brien. "The dry stretch was the whole key. Except for that, it was an even ball game."

Ephrata 36, Quincy 32
Game 13. (Winner to state, loser out)
At Eastmont High School

The Battle of the Basin was settled on the neutral floor of the Eastmont High School gymnasium Saturday night.
And with second place in the boys North Central District "A" basketball tournament and a trip to the State "A" tourney on the line (in addition to territorial bragging rights) Ephrata won out with a tension-filled verdict over Quincy.
The Tigers will be making their fifth State tourney appearance. They'll take an 18-6 record to Tacoma, where they went 1-2 last year and failed to place.
For Quincy, a 10th State "A" trip was foiled and the 1985-86 season came to a sudden, tear-filled end when the Tigers' Gary Hagy dropped in two free throws with 11 seconds left to put the final score in the books.
The Jackrabbits finished the season with a 19-6 record, including one win in three games against Ephrata. Their district record against Ephrata now stands at 1-5.
"She wasn't pretty, but she was beautiful," said the ever-quotable Marty O'Brien, coach of the Tigers. "The main thing was we didn't give up. At the start of the game we weren't playing to win; we were kind of afraid to lose. But when it came to crunch time, we made 8-for-8 at the foul line."
By the time the end of the game rolled around, the roles had reversed. The Tigers were coming up with the big plays and the Jackrabbits were just missing.
Charlie Carlson connected on a rebound shot with 2:15 remaining that put Ephrata on top 32-30. After Quincy's Tom Bidon missed the first of a one-and-one foul opportunity (the Jacks missed all four free throws in the last quarter), Ephrata went into a spread offense. Carlson passed to a wide-open Jon McCreary along the baseline and McCreary went in for an uncontested lay-up with 20 seconds left.
Jeff Vordahl came right back with a half-hook shot in the key and got fouled. The Quincy senior, with a chance to make it a one-point game with 13 seconds to go, clanked his free throw off the front of the rim and into the hands of Hagy.
Hagy was fouled instantly and his two foul shots brushed through the net as a chorus of "On To State" blasted away in the background.
"You've got to put the brown thing in the round thing, and we didn't do that," said Quincy coach Jim Spence, a 14-year veteran who announced his retirement for the coaching scene after the game. "When you get the shots you want and ball doesn't go through the hole, that's the way the game goes."
It was a frustrating night for Vordahl, the Quincy scoring leader. He did manage to hit his average of 18 points, but went 9-for-25 from the floor and 0-for-3 at the foul line. The second half was a real struggle as the 6-1 wing misfired on 11-of-16 shots.
Jim Etter got the nod to check Vordahl when O'Brien opted to switch from a zone to a man-to-man early in the second half.
"You guys sold the farm on that defense," O'Brien said to his team after the game. "Outstanding job Jimmy. You all did a great job."
O'Brien, who was upset about his players "standing around" in the first half, intended to use the man defense to "get ourselves going."
Vordahl had led Quincy during its first-half domination. The Jacks enjoyed leads of as much as eight points before Carlson and Hagy teamed up on a six-point run, shaving the Quincy margin to 20-16 at the half.
"Those two players (Carlson and Hagy) are as good as any two in the league," said Spence.
Hagy led Ephrata with 14 points (5-for-13 from the field, 4-for-4 at the line) and pulled down five critical rebounds in the second half. Carlson was the front-line leader for the Tigers, yanking down 12 rebounds, blocking three shots and chipping in 10 points (4-for-6 and 2-for-2).
Ephrata guard Scott Smith added some punch to the Tiger offense in the second half, when he scored all eight of his points. He was a 3-for-7 shooter from the floor and 2-for-2 at the line.
And then there was McCreary who O'Brien described as a "great player for a guy who doesn't score." The 6-1 post collected five rebounds ("Every one was a key one," said O'Brien) and blocked two shots.
Ephrata's offense perked up with an 8-for-15 display in the second half, coming back from a 6-for-17 slump in the first half.
The contest set two district tourney records, fewest points by a winning team (40 was the old mark, held by three teams) and fewest combined points (71 was the previous mark set last year by Tonasket and Oroville).
For Ephrata fans, she wasn't pretty but she was beautiful.
Of Note: He was fighting back the emotion of the moment, and he succeeded.
Jim Spence stood outside the Quincy locker room following a highly emotional loss to Ephrata on Saturday night, a loss which ended the Jackrabbit's bid for a State "A" tournament berth giving his last interview while his players filed past him, saying their goodbyes.
"That's it, that 's the last one," he said unceremoniously.
The last game of a distinguished basketball coaching career. Spence had announced plans to retire 14 years after taking over for another highly successful Quincy coach, Bob Woodworth.
The Spence years included 201 wins and 127 losses, for a winning percentage of .613. Number 200 was last Tuesday's district elimination-round win over Tonasket. The achievement went virtually unnoticed.
"He likes to keep those milestones quite," said Quincy assistant coach Jack Peasley. "Jim, because of the type of person he is, doesn't like to make a big deal about those kinds of things. In fact, the team never would have found out about (the 200-win career) if it weren't for Jim's two sons asking him about it."

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Tournament Scoring Leaders