Eagles upset the T-Wolves

ROSALIA — 1B Southeast Grape division’s third-seeded boys basketball team, the Yakama Nation Tribal Eagles, upset the Wheat Division’s second-seeded Tekoa-Rosalia Timberwolves 73-62 on Feb. 9, spurred on by a 21-point third quarter.

Yakama Nation Tribal ended the first quarter with a narrow lead, 20-17. The Eagles followed with another 20-point quarter to end the first half while Tekoa-Rosalia put up 19 in the same frame, resulting in a 40-36 Eagles’ lead going into halftime.

“We knew we had to shut down (Morgun Martin) and (Isaac Bone),” Yakama Nation Tribal head coach Kristoffer Strom said. “We knew that was a big part of our game plan, just to make life a little harder for (Tekoa-Rosalia). We wanted to try and make their other players beat us. That was the game plan, and that’s part of the fun as a coach. It’s fun when you put together and the team believes in your game plan and they execute.”

That game plan exhibited itself in the third quarter, when the Eagles opened with a 10-4 run to take their first double-digit lead of the game.

Jaydn ScabbyRobe drained a 3-pointer to further bolster the Yakama Nation Tribal lead to 53-40 with 3:42 left in the third quarter. The Eagles would maintain the 13-point advantage for the rest of the frame and the final eight minutes of regulation began with the Timberwolves trailing 61-48.

Tekoa-Rosalia fought to get the game within single-digits for most of the fourth quarter and was able to after a Morgun Martin shot with 1:13 left in the contest. But at that point, Yakama Nation Tribal’s lead was too large with too little time remaining and the Eagles ended up upsetting the Timberwolves by 11 points.

Part of the reason neither team was able to break away from the other in the fourth was due to the defensive adjustments of the Timberwolves – who switched from a zone defense in the first three quarters to a man defense in the fourth.

“For some reason we couldn’t guard anybody,” Tekoa-Rosalia head coach Mike Bone said. “They moved the ball well, they shared the ball, so we couldn’t key in on one person to say ‘we need to stop that guy.’ They were all hitting their shots, they were all able to get to the rim, get our defense to collapse and then swing it around until they got the open shot.”

The game was a physical one, with four of the Timberwolves’ players on their fourth foul halfway through the final quarter.

“It was good to have Riley (Gehring) with us so we could have a little more depth,” Bone said. “But it was tough. The defense that they played on us tonight – they were able to push us off our spots, where we couldn’t get everything going and feel comfortable. It just threw everyone out of rhythm and threw us off and we didn’t know how to recover.”

With the win – Yakama Nation Tribal advanced to a game to play the Grape Division’s first-seeded team, DeSales, in the second round of the district tournament, and Tekoa-Rosalia fell to the consolation bracket, where it played the Wheat Division’s fourth-seed, St. John-Endicott/LaCrosse, for the third time this year.

“That gives us a little bit of hope,” Bone said. “We were looking forward to a rematch with DeSales, but we didn’t take care of business tonight. And so, knowing St. John, that’ll be a good matchup. They played us really well the first time we played; the second time we were able to take care of business. But beating a team three times is tough. We’re going to have to really work at it.”

Yakama Nation Tribal lost against DeSales 66-21 on Feb. 11 and played against Oakesdale on Feb. 15 in a consolation bracket semifinal. Results were unavailable at press time.

Trevor Lewis led Yakama Nation Tribal with a game-high 23 points, while Jonas ScabbyRobe added 16.

Tekoa-Rosalia was led with 21 points from Martin while Jadin Campbell added 20.

YAKAMA NATION TRIBAL (12-8, 9-4)

Jaydn ScabbyRoe 3 2-2 10, Trevor Lewis 6 7-10 23, Jonas ScabbyRobe 5 3-4 16, Jayden Visaya 5 1-3 11, Winston Onepennee 0 0-0 0, Gunner Wallulatum 2 1-1 5, Jabez Saluskin 3 0-0 8. Totals 24 14-20 73.

TEKOA-Rosalia (14-6, 8-5)

Morgun Martin 9 1-1 21, Joey Murray 1 0-2 2, Jadin Campbell 7 4-5 20, Braxton French 1 2-2 4, Isaac Bone 3 3-7 9, Gabe Morgan 0 0-0 0, Riley Gehring 3 0-1 6. Totals 24 10-18 62.

3-point goals – Lewis 4, Jo. ScabbyRobe 3, Ja. ScabbyRobe 2, Saluskin 2, Martin 2, Campbell 2.