Wa-Hi Boys basketball downs Mead in opening playoff overtime victory

WALLA WALLA—The largest crowd of the season got more than its money worth in the roller coaster of a ride as Wa-Hi boys basketball took its foot off the gas pedal in the fourth before hitting it again in overtime for the 68-61 first round of the Greater Spokane League/Mid-Columbia Conference playoff win.

In the end the game came down to clutch free throws. Mead’s Sam Wenkheimer, who lead the Panthers with 14 points, hit two big free throws with 15 seconds in regulation to close the Blue Devil’s lead to 56-55. Sophomore Diego Jaques was fouled intentionally with 6.6 seconds left, missed his first attempt, but swished the second shot to make it a two-point game at 57-55.

Following a Mead full time out, senior Brandon Shoff, who finished with 12 points, took the inbounds pass and performed magic by going the length of the entire court weaving and juking his way to a game-tying layup at the buzzer.

Wa-Hi made the most of the four minutes in overtime. They first won the tipoff and then junior Michael Cornia stepped up to the line with 30 seconds gone and hit two key free-throws. The first of which bounced around the rim in dramatic fashion before dropping through the net. Following his second free throw, he would next get the ball down low on the team’s next offensive possession and spin around, banking the basketball in. His shot was followed by a 3-pointer by Sophomore Dillon Wasser, which gave the Blue Devils a nice cushion 64-59.

Clutch free throws by Jaques and Wasser sealed the game as Mead would get a garbage basket at the buzzer as Wa-Hi won the overtime 11-4. Wasser was impressed by the help the crowd gave the team.

“It was crazy hearing the gym shake on the left side from the student section and just the noise was crazy,” Wasser said when getting ready to shoot those key free throws. “It was the loudest all season.”

The Blue Devils were able to feed off that energy over the final four minutes after faltering a bit in the fourth quarter.

“We kind of melted at the end of the fourth,” Wa-Hi Head Coach Adam Berg said. “They had all the energy. When our guys sat down, I told them, `We have to reset and have the next play mentality.’ We didn’t talk specifically about what we were going to do, just wanted to reset and play four good minutes of basketball.”

Before the Blue Devils could melt, they had to catch fire. After winning the opening tip, Wa-Hi promptly turned the ball over to Mead, where Shoff put back a teammate’s miss for the first points of the game. Senior Dylan Ashbeck, who finished with 17 points, answered with his own lay up as he penetrated the opposing defense as if they were ghosts rather than defenders. Ashbeck provided a lot of team’s offense with key drives to the basket, smoothly penetrating past the defense.

After trading a few more buckets, Mead got really hot from long distance as Kaden Gardner knocked down two threes and Wenkheimer was deadly with three treys. Just like that, the Blue Devils were in a nine-point hole 18-9 and the Panthers had successfully taken most of air out of the gym.

Instead of folding, Wa-Hi’s Jaques answered with a three-pointer and two more on an Ashbeck bucket after catching the inbounds pass. Now it was 18-14 and there was life again and hope from the fans screaming in the student section.

“Being in our first playoff game, there were butterflies in everyone’s stomach,” Berg said. “We didn’t start out well and could have been down worse, but we hit some shots and cut it to six.”

The butterflies were evident throughout the entire first half as it seemed as if the Blue Devils were trying too hard and forcing the ball at the hoop rather than shooting baskets. It led to a number of turnovers and missed shots and easy baskets for the Panthers.

Cornia, who scored four points in the first quarter, also acknowledged the slow start by himself and the Blue Devils.

“It was kind of a slow start for me, but we started to work the ball in and out more and that opened up more shots for me inside,” he said of the later success. “I wasn’t finishing very well in the beginning and I finally focused, and coach told me `finish up’ and I did.”

Cornia gave Wa-Hi its first lead of the game with 5:10 left in the second quarter on a bank shot. He would add to the lead, 26-23, with an aggressive drive to the basket where he did finish as was asked by his coach. A three-point shot with 3:35 left by junior Jacob Coram had the crowd erupting and believing Wa-Hi could pull off a victory after falling behind early and struggling with the Mead full court pressure.

Cornia would score the final two points of the half on a great behind the back pass from junior Brandon Smith. Mead would claw its way back with five straight points for a one-point 31-30 Blue Devil lead at the intermission.

Wa-Hi came out strong in the second half and raced to an eight-point lead at 41-33 after an Ashbeck converted a 3-point play with a free throw after being fouled on a made shot on an inbounds play. They would then trade baskets the rest of the third quarter for an eight-point advantage going into the final quarter, 52-44.

Mead would capitalize on the opportunities Wa-Hi graciously gave them from turnovers, missed shots and general sloppy play over the final three minutes of regulation. It was not all negativity for the Blue Devils as they did have some great defensive play down the stretch that would be the difference between a loss and overtime. Cornia had some impressive blocked shots during that time frame.

“Oh that’s my favorite part of playing basketball is the blocks,” Cornia said. “So when I got those it was a huge energy booster which we needed because defense turns into offense.”

In the end, one of the keys to the win was the play of unheralded Dillon Wasser who finished with 10 points, including the three-point dagger to Mead’s victory hopes in overtime.

“Dillon hit a clutch three and two clutch free throws,” Berg said. “A lot of what he does goes unnoticed. He does so much for us offensively, defensively, and ball handling that it is hard to take him off the floor.”

Despite the praise from his coach, Wasser deflected the praise instead focusing on the team effort and it just being his turn to take the shot.

“It’s just our guys have such a huge leap of trust and faith in each other and we all just believe in each other so much whenever big opportunities come it doesn’t matter who shooting the shot or who’s making the play, we just trust each other,” he said.

“Just a great playoff game,” Berg said.” We knew they would be tough. I thought we were prepared for what they did. (I) told our guys, `It was the playoffs and no team would give up.’ If we got up, they would scrap back and if they got up, we would have to scrap back. That’s what it was about tonight.”

The Blue Devils traveled to Spokane for round two of the double-elimination playoffs to face Central Valley. The 19-2 Bears defeated Hanford in their opening round game 76-42. To put this game into context, Wa-Hi beat Hanford 83-63 in December and 71-52 a couple of weeks ago.

1st 2nd 3rd 4th OT Final

Mead 22 8 14 13 4 61

Wa-Hi 16 15 21 5 11 68

Mead (61): Wenkheimer 14, Shoff 12, Russell 11, Gardner 10, Mulder 9, Mount 3, Reighard 2. 3-pts: 5, Wenkheimer 3, Gardner 2. Fouls: 20. Turnovers: 11. Free Throws: 11-16. Assists 9. Rebounds 36.

Wa-HI (68): Cornia 22, Ashbeck 17, Wasser 10, Jaques 9, Coram 6, Smith 4. 3-pts: 8, Wasser 2, Jaques 2, Coram 2, Smith 2. Fouls: 15. Turnovers: 10. Free Throws: 14-19. Assists 11. Rebounds 40.