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Bi-County battle

NWC, Davenport eager to battle again

Published March 7, 2009

White Swan's Ralph George gets a hand on the ball as Davenport's Cody Hopkins heads for the basket. The Spokesman-Review (Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review )

Bi-County League fans ended up with the title game of their dreams Friday night when conference rivals Northwest Christian and Davenport both posted semifinal-round wins at the Arena to advance to tonight's championship showdown of the State 2B boys basketball championship.

Nothing came easy for either team, but Davenport managed to hold off White Swan 57-50 and top-ranked NWC survived a major scare to put away Garfield-Palouse 59-46 in overtime and keep its record unblemished.

Now it's up to Davenport (20-7) to deal with the nightmare of trying to derail the regular-season Bi-County champion Crusaders (28-0) who have won 56 consecutive games and are gunning for an unprecedented fourth-consecutive State B title.

Tonight's final tips off at 8, with the Gorillas trying to beat NWC for the first time in five tries this winter.

"Obviously, we're hoping the fifth time is a charm," said Davenport coach Tim Zeiler, whose team blew all but three points of a 13-point fourth-quarter lead before putting away White Swan (21-3), which got 19 points from senior guard Drew Blodgett. "At the very beginning of the season, we told our kids we didn't care when we beat Northwest Christian, as long as we beat them the last time we play them – which will be (tonight).

"But (NWC) Coach Ray Ricks is an unbelievable coach; his kids are unbelievable athletes, and their bench is strong, so it's going to be a real shootout."

The Crusaders seemed on the verge of putting Gar-Pal (19-4) away early, but could do little as the Vikings sliced into the lead and forced overtime when Tyson Palmer put back his miss of a baseline jumper at the buzzer to tie the game at 46.

They did, however, dominate in the extra period, outscoring Gar-Pal 13-0 as 6-foot-4 senior center Matt Zanderbergen finished with an impressive 18-point, 16-rebound double-double.

In their four previous wins over Davenport, which finished second in the Bi-County regular-season standings, the Crusaders outscored the Gorillas by 54 points. But don't expect intimidation to be a factor in tonight's championship game.

"Northwest Christian has never intimidated our kids," Zeiler said. "Our kids have played well against them, and if we're hitting on all cylinders, I guarantee you, we've got a chance."

Davenport's junior point guard Jarod Gunning, who scored 14 points in the night's win over White Swan, echoed Zeiler's sentiments.

"We won't be intimidated," he said. "The time we've played them this year, we've only had one or two guys play good. We haven't played them yet when every single person on the team is playing their best.

"Every time somebody had an off game – like the first time we played them I had an off game. And the last time our big guy (Morgan Scharff) only had three points. If we can get a game where everybody is clicking and we stay out of foul trouble ..."

In the semifinal, Taylor Morgan finished with a game-high 22 points and 13 rebounds, while Gunning and Scharff, Davenport's 6-foot-9 junior combined for 24 points and 15 rebounds.

The Gorillas will need that same kind of balance if they hope to stop the Crusaders' drive to become the first team in State B tournament history to win four consecutive titles.

"Tomorrow night should be a good one," Ricks said. "You've got to give credit to the teams we've played his year. Teams have brought it against us, so we've seen a lot of different things, from junk defenses to all kind of presses.

"We feel like we're prepared, and we're going to continue to battle. We're not taking anything for granted."