2002-02-12 23:13 ☼ post
Tonight’s varsity boys basketball game against Lewis & Clark had a pretty high lameness factor as we (Ferris) were 16-2 in league going in while the Tigers were 2 — 16. Add a late start because of senior night and you’ve got a recipe for general basketball malaise. In a way that’s surprising because L.C. is our big rival on Spokane’s South Hill, but considering the one sided nature of the Ferris-L.C. boys basketball rivalry over the last 20 years it only makes sense.
Prior to the game all of LC’s graduating seniors and their parents were recognized out on the court and that was very nice, but it delayed things a bit on one we just wanted to get over with. In the end we won by about 15, but it wasn’t particularly pretty. L.C. did a great job of competing— they certainly didn’t seem like a team that should have as many losses as they do.
While our team didn’t play inspired basketball, they didn’t overlook the Tigers either and in the end they got the W.
I’d also have to say that L.C.’s new gym is a very nice facility size-wise. Hopefully Wayne Gilman Court at Ferris will get a comparable upgrade sometime in the next 10 years. Either that or return most of our GSL games to the Spokane Arena where they belong. But I digress.
While the varsity game wasn’t that thrilling, todays’s boys JV game between the Saxons and the Tigers was very competitive. The game started off with a barrage of 3 pointers from both sides and at the end of the quarter we led the Tigers 23-18. I told our players during the break between quarters, “the offense was great, but the defense was terrible and that we were going to be in trouble if we didn’t pick up the D because the offense wasn’t going to last.”
Unfortunately, my words proved prophetic as we only scored 4 points in the second quarter and fell behind 33-27 to end the half. After a productive halftime chat we got things righted in the third quarter and pulled within one at 43-44. Then seizing the momentum with some timely baskets we managed to take control in the fourth quarter and pushed the lead to as much as 9 before letting L.C. back into the game through missed shots and turnovers. Down 3 with 3 seconds remaining and the ball in their half of the court, the L.C. was unable to make a final 3 pointer to send the game into overtime and we came away with a 59-56 victory.