Hooping To TheTop Of The Heap

WALLA WALLA - A field shot from Bulldog Garett Turner circled the hoop and spun out instead of going in.

Minutes later, on the other side of the court, Cardinal Matt Hamilton battled for the ball time and again until he finally had the rebound. His efforts, among others, won him applause when he was subbed at the end of the game.

In the end, it was a mixture of luck and a margin of superiority that gave WP its district tournament win over Dayton Friday. But the Bulldogs, who were on fire from their prior wins over Liberty Christian and Asotin, came within three points of closing the gap in the fourth quarter. It took all the Cardinals had to ward them off.

"Every time we started to pull away, they'd come back," Cardinals head coach T.J. Scott said. "Dayton has given us the toughest three league games of the season."

The final 69- 56 score did not reflect how fiercely the Touchet Valley titans clashed. The Bulldogs were well within range when there were 50 seconds on the clock, trailing by just six points at 62-56.

"We played them tough all three times," Dayton head coach Roy Ramirez said, referring to earlier losses to the Cardinals that were even closer. "We just couldn't get over the hump with them."

The Bulldogs were the first to score after tipoff, and they were up 8-7 before WP began to build a small but persistent lead with method and composure. The Cardinals were ahead 17-14 at the end of the first quarter. During the second quarter, it seemed as though the Bulldogs might respond with a consistent lead of its own, but it turned out to be a mere exchange.

With less than a minute to go in the first half, Dustin Wooderchak put his team ahead 31-28, after which Guillermo Hernandez threw a field goal with fewer than a handful of seconds to go, giving WP a critical five-point lead going into halftime.

"We took advantage of every opportunity," Scott said. "But we didn't start moving our feet until the second half."

The start of the third quarter was auspicious. Cardinal Zach Bartlow was the first to score with a field goal. Bulldog Hayden Fullerton outdid him with a trey, but WP retained its composure and slowly, insidiously built its lead with superior rebounding and a higher percentage of drops.

"We had momentum - we've been playing some pretty good basketball," Ramirez said about the playoff victories that preceded the district tournament. "But we got out rebounded again. They got us on second-chance points."

And a number of the Bulldogs' own first-chance shots didn't produce, several just barely missing their mark like Turner's ball that circled the drain only to come back out again.

The final third-quarter score was 52-43.

But life and hope remained aplenty among the Bulldogs, who scored the first six points of the fourth quarter and threatened within three with about five minutes to go in the game. Bartlow scored yet another deft layup, echoed by a two-pointer from Kroft Sunderland, a powerhouse on the Bulldogs offense along with Turner, Fullerton and Colton Bickelhaupt.

But foul trouble and WP conversions had the Cards ahead with just over a minute to go in the fourth. To show just how dangerous the Bulldogs were, Bickelhaupt scored an eye-warming trey that brought his team within six at 62-56.

Dayton got a little too aggressive under the WP board, fouling Wooderchak and Cady whose twopointers gave the Cards a 10-point lead with less than half a minute. A T.J. Hofer fast break not only widened the margin to a dozen points, a Bulldog foul sent him to the line alone. He cashed in and sealed the Cardinals' victory at 69-56.

With just a few seconds to go on a throw in from the sideline, Cardinal Justin Zuger didn't even try a long shot, which he later said was out of respect for the other team.

"When you're ahead like that, you just don't do that," he said.

Ramirez said his Bulldogs hung on until the end, getting unlucky with shots and fouls. "They weren't going to give up," he said. "Some of the (last) shots just didn't fall."

Moment s af ter the buzzer sounded and after a heart-felt salute to the Bulldogs, the Cardinals swarmed center court with the second WP trophy of the night.

"I believed we could do it the whole way if we played up to our potential," senior Cady said. The women joined them later to mark the historic first of two WP district championships.

The Bulldogs, who had high hopes after beating two other playoffs teams earlier in the week, including Asotin on the Panthers' home court, were clearly deflated when they emerged from the locker room.

"I'm a bit disappointed," senior Bulldog Dain Henderson said. "I thought we had a good shot. But they're a good team. They deserve all the respect they get."

Like their female Cardinals counterparts, the men play their first state tournament game Friday night and similarly benefit from the double-elimination rule that favors district champions.

"I'm really proud of how hard they fought and were able to continue the journey," Scott said about his team.

Waitsburg-Prescott vs. Dayton (Feb. 18)

Whitman College District Championship Game 69-56

WP 17 16 19 17 69

Dayton 14 14 13 15 56

WP (69): T.J. Hofer 6, Kris Cady 7, Guillermo Hernandez 4, Zack Bartlow 21, Dustin Wooderchak 12, Tre Brannock 6, Matt Hamilton 12.

Dayton (56): Wyatt Frame 2, Jason Norris 2, Colton Bickelhaupt 11, Joey Schlachter 2, Dain Henderson 2, Hayden Fullerton 8, Garett Turner 17, Kroft Sunderland 12.

Waitsburg Prescott vs DeSales (Feb. 18)

Whitman College District Championship Game 40-36

WP9751940

DeSales6931836

WP (40) Krystal Harris 11; Genesis Pearson 9; Megan Withers 8; Kristin Potter 8; Hailey Goenen 2; and Ronnie Hulce 2.