Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Colton boys
Colton boys
The older brothers got them to state for the first time, and the younger brothers won it.
Three years after Dustin Patchen and Josh Straughan led Colton High School to its first-ever state tournament berth, Jake Straughan and Dalton Patchen took them to their first state championship in school history.
At Spokane Arena Saturday night, with a supporting cast of Austin Meyer, Jordan Druffel, Carter Dahmen, Dillon Frank and Grant Kinzer, Colton beat Pomeroy 59-46 to cap a state journey which included near-disaster in the semifinal and a Dalton Patchen rescue surge in the first round.
In the end, it was Colton coach Seth Paine’s first time in a state final and first win.
Paine, who took the team for a shootaround earlier in the day at the site of his first coaching job — Horizon Junior High School in Spokane — started at Colton when this year’s seniors were seventh-graders.
“I’m so proud to be a Colton Wildcat,” he said. “I love these kids and they made history tonight… I dreamed of this when I was their age. I really and truly lived a dream.”
Colton avenged three earlier losses to Pomeroy this season, including just one in which Straughan was in the lineup – in his fourth game back recovering from a broken fibula in a state football quarterfinal game.
It was part of what junior Austin Meyer called the basketball season’s lowest moment.
“With Jake coming back, the first games, the adjustments everyone had to make. It was a high and a low,” he said. “We got our great player back but we had to learn to play together again.”
As the district tournament began and the adjustments got made, Colton had something new happening. Straughan’s sense a few weeks ago that the team had really put it together proved right.
“It’s amazing,” he said after winning the state championship. “The feeling is what I imagined… especially coming through the adversity of the beginning of the season and to end with a state title with my family. Those are my brothers.”
The joy showed on Straughan’s face after the game as well as during, when he started with two early three-pointers to give Colton the initial lead.
For Dillon Frank, his joy came on a late three-point shot to put the Wildcats back up seven points with four minutes remaining — after he was hounded earlier by Pomeroy’s press and helped break it.
“I know Pomeroy wanted me to have the ball, I heard the coaches say ‘let 22 have it,’” Frank said.
When No. 22 indeed got it on Colton’s side of the floor, he downed that shot right in front of his bench — just like spraying thistles at his job on the Meyer farm.
The farming Meyer is an uncle to Austin, the 6’0” junior forward who found a place inside and never left.
“I like to be in the physical part of the game,” he said. “I work to get my rebounds.”
During the part of the season in which Straughan came back and the team struggled, Meyer printed out a picture of Spokane Arena and carried it in his duffel bag ever since.
“Now I might give it to Coach, let him keep it,” he said.
Another item that spurred on the team was the gold ball which has remained on display above the concession area next to the Colton High gym for the past five years – the 1B girls’ state championship trophy.
Patchen would see it every time he walked down the hall.
“Always,” he said. “It’s just sitting there, I feel like it’s staring at me or something. Every so often I’d go touch the gold ball.”
He did it again last week after the team’s closing practice before boarding the bus to Spokane.
THE STATE CHAMPIONSHIP: Colton 59, Pomeroy 46
The game began with a tip, a few dribbles and a three-point attempt from the top of the key by Pomeroy’s Tyson Feider.
It bounced out and Colton took their first trip up the floor, with the Pirates’ Bryan McGreevy guarding Straughan.
Colton got on the scoreboard first, with a three-pointer from Straughan, then another and a drive for an 8-0 lead as Pomeroy’s Feider kept missing shots.
The Pirates’ 6’7” Riley Bott tried a three-pointer which bounced out and then tried another soon after which fell away too.
Then Patchen, on the other end of the floor, delivered a backward, two-handed tip-in for 10-2 Colton.
Still in the first quarter, Pomeroy’s 6’6” Cody LaMunyan blocked his third shot of the game before Straughan hit a three-pointer at the shot-clock buzzer for 13-4.
A smile lit up his face.
In the second quarter, LaMunyan found Bott inside for a two-footer, cutting the Wildcats’ lead to five.
McGreevy then hit a three-pointer to cut it to two.
“We wanted to pack it in, make them shoot from the perimeter,” Coach Paine said later. “To keep our feet inside, challenge their shots and rebound the basketball.”
Colton then responded to McGreevy’s shot, rebuilding their lead with a Patchen tip-in and three-pointer.
A deep shot from Bott bounced out before he made a four-footer, then missed another three-point attempt.
With the Pomeroy student crowd yelling, “Hey Jake! Hey Jake!” every time Straughan got the ball, he drove for a 10-foot jump shot and 22-13 Colton.
LaMunyan made a couple more shots before the Wildcats’ Meyer took the ball up to the basket inside and got fouled by LaMunyan, his second personal.
He made both shots to put Colton back up nine points.
Bott kept patrol on the perimeter and hit a three-pointer.
Then Patchen answered with a three-pointer at the first half buzzer and a foul.
He made the shot for a 28-18 halftime lead.
Opening the second half, Bott started with a three attempt for the first shot — no.
Straughan started Colton off with a drive and jump shot before LaMunyan hit a six-footer.
He scored again inside before Straughan delivered a leaning drive and 10-footer to keep Colton up 10.
They kept it up; a Patchen eight-foot fadeaway, a nice move inside from Meyer.
With 3:20 left in the third quarter, Pomeroy’s Cole Mayfield caused Patchen’s first foul, surging to the basket to follow his own shot.
Then Pomeroy started to press, and cut into the lead.
LaMunyan followed a Bott airball from three with a rebound and putback before Bott hit an eight-footer from the baseline.
LaMunyan from five feet cut the lead to 40-35 Colton.
After a Patchen rebound and inside score, Pomeroy’s Mayfield stole an inbound pass and scored right at the buzzer for 42-39.
Opening the fourth quarter, down to a three-point margin, Colton’s Jordan Druffel hit a three-pointer from the baseline before LaMunyan fed McGreevy underneath.
Druffel fouled him and he made both.
Fieder then made a runner-shot for Pomeroy, cutting the Colton lead back to two.
On their next trip down the floor, Bott hit only air again on a three-point attempt.
Moments later, Colton’s Frank downed his key three-pointer in front of the Wildcats’ bench.
With Colton back up seven, the Pomeroy threat had reached its climax.
A minute after that, a Straughan runner put the Wildcats back up 10 with 2:29 remaining.
All the while, Patchen secured key rebounds.
With 1:57 left, Bott grabbed a rebound and Patchen fouled him, his second.
As the game dwindled, Bott hit a three-pointer but Colton still led by 11.
While Colton won their first state title in school history, Pomeroy finished second for the third time, adding to 1972 and 1980.
“I think we showed why Whitman County basketball is pretty solid,” Paine said.
After the game and the trophy ceremony, celebration continued with the gold ball in the locker room when Paine turned away to put his clipboards and scorebook into his duffel bag. He heard the rip of a strip of velcro and noticed the locker room was quiet.
At first, he thought the kids had left. Then he turned around to see that team was still there.
The gold ball had been set on the floor and the players were stopped, just staring at it.
“It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up,” said Paine. “It was cool. I think that was the moment that they realized as a group what they accomplished.”
STATE SEMIFINAL
Just before the "Parkade" sign lit up on the cityscape across the river, word began to spread outside the arena.
As fans crossed the street between one full parking lot and another, the news got relayed that Pomeroy beat Neah Bay.
That meant that the Whitman County Southeast 1B league champions would be waiting in the championship game for the winner of Colton vs. Shorewood Christian.
Soon the second semifinal matchup got underway.
It soon brought up the question of whether Spokane Arena was built on the grounds of a former 1800s hog lot.
Because this game was Sloptown, Washington, marked by errant passes, bobbled catches and bumbled shots.
Nonetheless, it wasn’t the journey, it was the destination.
In what became the scare of the tournament for Colton, the Wildcats watched big leads disappear, and lost Dalton Patchen to fouls with 3:10 left in the game. Jake Straughan eventually hit two free throws to put them back up three points with 12 seconds remaining.
Shoreline Christian pushed the ball up the floor and got it to freshman guard Jovi Fevaleaki, who took the shot to tie, bouncing it off the rim at the buzzer.
Straughan ran to the arms of Coach Paine and they were on to the championship game.
Colton 61, Shoreline Christian 58
As the slippery ball bounced and rolled around the Spokane Arena floor, Colton built a quick early lead, going up 18-4 on a Straughan three-pointer.
Shoreline Christian fought back to within seven when Dillon Frank got called for kicking the ball early in the second quarter.
The Lions kept at it, getting to within 25-17 when Colton’s Carter Dahmen fell to the floor for a traveling call.
But Colton kept control of the scoreboard, going up 29-17 on a long pass from Straughan to Patchen for a lay-up.
With an eight-point Wildcat lead, the last possession of the half ended on S.C. knocking the ball free from Straughan while dribbling, which they followed with a misguided shot. Still in the waning seconds, Frank ended up with the ball to heave it as the buzzer sounded.
Back to the locker rooms the teams went.
"Come on Lions! We’re not done yet!" called out the continued cheers of the S.C. student section. "We’re not done yet!"
In the third quarter, their team quickly cut the lead to two, then to one on a move by S.C. No. 6.
A three from Patchen followed before the Lions’ Micah Lorenz hit an 18-footer to put the margin back to one.
Then two Straughan three-pointers and a tip-in from Patchen but Colton back up nine when S.C. called timeout with :56 left in the third.
"We’re not done yet! We’re not done yet!" kept up the Shoreline Christian fans.
Starting the fourth quarter, Colton went up 11 on a Straughan steal and fast break before a Patchen tip-in made it 51-38.
S.C. scored again but after a Lorenz around-the-back pass to nowhere, Straughan downed another three-pointer.
Nearing five minutes left in the game, S.C. worked to cut the lead to six when Patchen fouled out on a charge call at 3:10 left in the fourth quarter.
The Lions scored again to make it 56-52 Colton.
"We’re not done yet! We’re not done yet!"
Straughan went to the line for two free throws and made one.
Colton led by three with 2:08 on the clock.
The lead went to five on two Straughan free throws. Shoreline Christian’s Jordan King then responded to cut it back to three.
Straughan drove and came up empty before, S.C. scored again and fouled Straughan with 12 seconds left.
Up just 59-58 now, with Patchen helpless on the bench, Straughan stepped to the line and made both.
After a timeout, S.C. pushed the ball up the floor and Fevaleaki took the shot.
Off the rim, S.C. finally was done and Colton advanced to their first boys state championship game in school history.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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