Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Gar Pal vs. Touchet 1
Gar Pal boys
Alec Bluff and Gar-Pal’s Mitch Jamison fight for the ball in the fourth quarter as Chad BrownEagle, left, and Tyler Thurman look on.
Tyler Thurman, left, and Matt Holbrook walk off the floor moments after the buzzer sounded as Viking cheerleaders look on.
North, south, east or west, past grain towers, alongside rail lines and onto highways, wherever Garfield-Palouse was sent for their state 1B regional game, they’d go – just one win away from Spokane Arena.
The designated road for No. 1-seed Vikings’ regional, however, lead to Spokane itself – a test against Cusick at Mt. Spokane High School Saturday night, just 12 miles and a few pounds and inches from the Arena.
These pounds and inches were accounted for by the lineup for Cusick, a no. 3 seed from the 1B Northeast Panorama League.
But could the thicker Cusick boys match the poise of the 22-1 Gar-Pal attack?
The answer was no, as the Panthers rode the edge of in-control/out of control in a frantic game. Yet they took the victory, 59-51, after a four-shot burst from Alec Bluff put Gar-Pal behind for the last time, ending their season.
"Usually, I like us to be a little more in control," said Cusick coach J.R. Bluff, his team advancing to the state tournament for the first time since 2010. "But tonight our backs were against the wall."
"What I think, you can’t print," said Vikings coach Tim Coles. "What we were used to and what we saw – the officiating was very loose and we weren’t able to get to their bench. But Cusick played a very, very good game. Physical, fast and their shots went down."
The game started with a flurry of deflections, blocks, no whistles and high-flying moves from Cusick to the rim with no finish. The Vikings’ Tyler Thurman eventually hit the first basket of the game, a three-pointer from the corner. Matt Holbrook then hit from the other corner.
Thurman picked up his second foul early in the second quarter and Coles pulled him.
Ian Niebergs went into the game, throwing an errant pass to Cole Sanderson on the wing. Falling out of bounds, Sanderson whipped the ball around his body and back to Niebergs. The possession saved, Gar-Pal bounced the ball in to Hunter Woltering, scoring underneath.
They trailed 21-19 with 2:18 in the second quarter.
Ending the half, Sanderson missed a three-pointer and Gar-Pal went into the second-floor locker room down 23-20.
Opening the third quarter, Cusick pushed their lead to seven after a turnover on what appeared a miscommunication of a pass from Gar-Pal’s Gabe Cocking to Mitch Jamison underneath.
Coles called timeout.
"That coach is mad," said a Cusick spectator at the sidelines.
Out of the timeout, Thurman came out and hit a 10-footer. Woltering then, in a rebounding and blocks barrage under the basket – the ball flying like a white lottery number – hit on his third attempt to cut the Cusick lead to three, 29-26.
More blocks came, with still few whistles.
Thurman dribbled down the floor and hit a 10-footer for a four-point game. Jamison made a nine-footer from the baseline for a two-point game.
Niebergs stole a Cusick pass and bolted free for a fast break, the Panthers’ Chad BrownEagle chasing. At the last moment, the Cusick guard leapt, slapping Niebergs’ lay-in against the backboard glass.
Back on offense, Thurman dribbled and found Jamison underneath for 32-32.
Cusick called timeout.
"Viking power! Viking power!!" stomped out the Gar-Pal crowd.
Back on the floor, Thurman penetrated the key and flipped a pass to Woltering for 34-32 Gar-Pal.
Then Thurman got a steal and took off up the floor with the ball.
Don’t believe me just watch. Don’t believe me just watch. Over to Holbrook, to Sanderson, who missed the shot. Jamison rebounded, back up for 36-34 with :34 left in the third quarter.
Cusick took it down the floor to look to get the last shot.
They missed four times before the buzzer sounded.
No. 22
One quarter to go – Holbrook opened it with a steal and no-one-close-to-him layup for a six-point Gar-Pal lead, 40-34.
Cusick’s Bluff, No. 22, then arose. An eight-footer cut it back to two, a step-out 10-footer to retake the lead 42-40.
Gar-Pal answered with an assist from Woltering to Jamison for 42-42. Bluff, a pony-tailed senior, answered back with a three-pointer from just off the top of the key.
Cusick’s crowd exploded and he trailed back up the floor with arms open wide.
Down by three with 4:36 remaining, Gar-Pal would need another push.
Bluff hit a four-footer off of an inside move, for 47-42 Cusick.
Jamison answered underneath for 49-45.
The Panthers’ Spirit White answered that with a three-pointer, 51-45.
BrownEagle downed another shot for 53-45 and Gar-Pal could answer no longer.
Shots did not fall. Holbrook missed from the top of the key and the clock dwindled. On a dead ball, Bluff worked the Cusick crowd, prompting loud cheers as Gar-Pal’s No. 22 – Thurman – stooped down, onto the back of his heels.
"On to state! On to state! On to state!" a group of Cusick fans began.
Eventually, the scoreboard clock would go to four zeros.
A promising Gar-Pal season ended again short of the goal.
"It was a rough end," said Cocking, a senior who spent stretches of the game outside of the Mt. Spokane gym trying to control a rare asthma attack. It had never happened to him in a game. "Last year’s end wasn’t as tough for me. But to now have two chances blown, as a senior, to see it slip through our fingers like that was really frustrating. We only lost twice, and this happened to be the one game you can’t lose."
CLASS OF 2015
Gar-Pal’s group of seniors: Thurman, Woltering, Jamison, Cocking and Sanderson, along with junior Holbrook – the fourth three-year starter in the lineup – seem a testament to the competitiveness of local 1B basketball.
When the Vikings’ class of 2015 core were sophomores, it looked as if they might make it to state then. Instead, they fell in the district tournament to scrappers Rosalia who took out a strong Colton team as well. Then, last year, Gar-Pal’s core of juniors were eliminated at the same stage by Colton and Pomeroy, the two teams who later played in the state final.
This year, Gar-Pal dispensed with Pomeroy last week to take the district’s No. 1 seed.
Pomeroy settled for the second-place slot and went to Cheney Friday and beat Almira-Coulee-Hartline.
They now make their third consecutive appearance at Spokane Arena.
"I really believe this Gar-Pal club could have competed for a state title," Coles said. "It’s sickening. This is the one that hurts me the worst because of the people I have here. I am confident, man for man, these boys will be very successful in life. I can’t say enough about the type of people they are."
This season was Coles’ 27th at Garfield-Palouse, with three state championships.
On Saturday night, after what proved this year’s team’s last game, the players eventually boarded the bus and were told they’d be going to Red Robin.
"I didn’t want to go at all," said Cocking of what was a quiet stop.
Later, the Gar-Pal bus merged onto I-90, past downtown Spokane, the lights of Division laid out like the calling of a siren – a sidestreet off of it leading to the destination which the Garfield-Palouse Cooperative bus would not return for this week.
Instead, it trailed back down 195 and onto Highway 27, just a grid of red running lights until the dreaming was done.
Aftermath:
"If you have rules, officials should follow the rules," Coles said three days later.
Will he file a complaint about the officiating?
"No one cares. You just hear the officials laughing," he said. "At state it’s a very physical game, but it’s not supposed to be that physical. You’re gonna have to adjust. If you can’t adjust, you’re gonna lose."
Coles called for a return to the 16-team format for 1B schools, citing the sheer number of the small schools as a reason the eight-team bracket in Spokane is inadequate.
The regional round is known to be dangerous.
Colton, last year, had to travel three hours to play the defending state champions Sunnyside Christian in Yakima – 30 minutes from their high school. A year before, LaCrosse-Washtucna needed Justin Wargo’s two stolen rebounds off of free throws to escape Walla Walla and Wellpinit.
Gar-Pal’s players returned to class Monday.
"I’ve never seen our school so solemn," Cocking said.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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