Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The game ended without a cheer.
As the buzzer went off Saturday night in Palouse on a 55-42 victory over LaCrosse-Washtucna, the Tigercats’ Darcy Stamper landed on Gar-Pal’s Jesse Lopez under the basket.
Gar-Pal’s Mitch Jamison holds the ball after calling timeout to keep posession during a scramble with LaCrosse-Washtucna’s Justin Wargo.
After two minutes of quiet, the applause finally came when Lopez was lifted off of the floor by attending Gar-Pal coaches.
In a physical contest which might have been served by wrestling mats covering the court, (with the frequency of players hitting the floor), Gar-Pal jumped to a big early lead and held tight as LaCrosse-Washtucna chipped away in the second half.
It was the first time the Vikings beat the Tigercats in two seasons.
“We played as a team, and we all like each other and can depend on each other,” said Gar-Pal sophomore forward Mitch Jamison. “Like coach says, ‘Stay powerful’…We had to get back at them for last year.”
After being mired on the perimeter for much of the first half, L/W (9-3 league, 12-3 overall) found their way inside in the second to cut the Gar-Pal lead to seven in the fourth quarter. But the Vikings (10-2 league, 13-3 overall) held them off.
Sophomore guard Tyler Thurman led with 18 points while Jamison had 12. Justin Wargo led LaCrosse-Washtucna with 21 points in the loss.
“Our defense made the difference,” said Gar-Pal Coach Tim Coles. “Our kids finally started listening to me about everybody talking on defense, telling each other what’s behind them.”
The game opened with a barrage of steals from Gar-Pal and a 13-2 lead. At 15-2, the Tigercats’ called timeout with 2:40 left in the first quarter and sent in their man with a tattoo, Austin Summers.
Gar-Pal’s Thurman forced another steal, before a Stamper drive for the Tigercats made it 19-4.
Thurman then dribbled, planted and leapt for a jump shot right beyond the free throw line for 21-4.
L/W senior Justin Wargo then managed to get underneath for a shot, score and foul. But he missed the free throw before Gar-Pal’s Thurman dribbled an inadvertant circle around a referee and scored again. Soon L/W’s Summers was back on the bench.
It was 22-6 with 4:45 left in the second quarter.
LaCrosse-Washtucna continued to get inside only sporadically, while on the other end of the floor, they fought the inside play of Jamison.
With 2:08 left in the quarter, the Tigercats finally rejected one of his two-foot shots.
As the half dwindled, L/W got into the lane a little before Jamison scored again for the Vikings, all alone under the basket on an inbound.
At the halftime buzzer, L/W’s Wargo, a senior, hit a three-pointer from the corner to make it 31-15.
The stage was set.
In the second half, LaCrosse-Washtucna scored first on a pass into Stamper. Then came a Gar-Pal travel call and a steal by L/W senior Alec Fleming, followed by another from Wargo, sending Gar-Pal’s Jamison and Jesse Lopez landing on the gym floor.
When Wargo scored under the basket, the lead was down to 13.
Next, the Vikings’ Lopez was called for a charge and Wargo passed to Sam Harder for a five-foot turnaround jump shot, 34-22.
“It’s a matter of time,” Coles said later. “The other team is going to make a run. The question is can you hold up.”
Gar-Pal’s freshman point guard Matt Holbrook hit air on a three-point attempt before Wargo got another steal and took the ball for a length-of-the-floor lay-in to cut the lead to 10.
Bangs of sweat formed on his forehead.
Wargo’s team then took a setback when Gar-Pal junior Zach Keuhner hit a three-pointer for 37-24 before L/W’s Fleming stole a ball, threw it to Wargo for a lay-in and a nine-point margin.
L/W kept whittling while Gar-Pal kept adding.
Wargo hit a seven-footer for 41-30 before Jamison, showing no sweat, made an inside move on Wargo and a crowd of help, took a shot and it bounced off the front bottom of the rim.
Going into the fourth, Gar-Pal still lead by 11.
A missed Viking free-throw, a rejection by Stamper, a drive and shot by Gar-Pal’s Holbrook bouncing off the backboard, then a ballhandling foul against him preceded a pass from Wargo to Stamper. He scored to make it still a nine-point game, 43-34 with 5:15 left.
After two missed free throws by Holbrook, L/W’s Fleming threw the ball to Wargo under the basket to cut the lead to seven, 43-36.
It was as close as they got.
On Gar-Pal’s next possession, the team showcased what got them there; an efficient transfer of five or six passes, ending with an open score by senior forward Anthony Floyd to put the lead back to nine.
“That’s how you win basketball games,” Coles said later. “It’s how we’ve won basketball games at Gar-Pal for the past 30 years.”
With Gar-Pal’s Jamison on the bench, Hunter Woltering downed a three-pointer right in front of the Vikings’ student section to put the lead back to 12.
Jamison went back in and Woltering hit a two-footer for 50-36. The Vikings’ Holbrook added a one-footer for 52-35 with 3:55 left.
A miss and his-own-rebound putback followed for Wargo, then a drive and a score from him, followed by a rejection and a rebound, but it was all not enough.
As the clock wound down, L/W had possession and Stamper drove inside for a close shot, leaped after the rebound in a crowd, the buzzer sounded and he landed with a thud on top of Lopez.
Jamison said his young team’s goal is to get to state. Gar-Pal hasn’t been there since 2008.
“It’s our favorite sport,” he said, of the Vikings’ sophomore and junior class.
LaCrosse-Washtucna beat Gar-Pal at home two weeks ago 52-39.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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