Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Gar Pal vs. Pom
Garfield-Palouse’s Wyatt Griner holds on for a rebound against Pomeroy’s Cole Mayfield Friday night in Clarkston. The Vikings won the championship, 56-36.
They did it on the strength of Woltering and Jamison.
A stable of star Garfield-Palouse guards have haunted the Southeast 1B league for three years but last Friday night in Clarkston -- in the 2015 district championship game -- it was the inside work of Hunter Woltering and Mitch Jamison that stood out.
In a 56-36 win over Pomeroy, Gar-Pal won the title after the teams split two games in the regular season.
"We saw that we had the advantage down low," said Woltering, a senior, who scored 11 points on the night. "We knew we had to own the key."
Jamison added 10 points while guards Tyler Thurman and Matt Holbrook had 13 and eight.
Tyson Feider led Pomeroy with 12 points and Bryan McGreevy added seven.
The Vikings will now take a No. 1 seed to the state sub-tournament a year after winning their league’s regular season title, but losing to Pomeroy in the championship game.
"We’d been the co-league champs before but that didn’t mean a whole lot," Woltering said. "I think tonight was a good example of a hard-working team… It kind of felt like we dropped the ball the last couple years. We were ready to get this this year."
The game began with Gar-Pal holding a small lead, as Thurman bumped Feider trailing back on defense. His assignment was to stop him.
Feider hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 14-14 in the second quarter.
Gar-Pal lead 24-20 at halftime.
In the third quarter, Woltering and Jamison, rebounding and hitting inside shots, helped build a 35-25 lead. Pomeroy cut it to seven at the end of the quarter, but in the fourth, Gar-Pal’s post players kept it up.
Woltering made a move inside, took the ball to the basket and missed. Jamison came down with the rebound, faked, went back up and scored for 37-28.
A minute later, Woltering hit a seven-footer for 41-28. On the next Pirates’ miss, as the clock started to become a factor, Woltering grabbed the rebound and then hit a free throw at the other end of the floor.
Gar-Pal coach Tim Coles called to the referee for a timeout. Once, twice, he yelled three times in the packed Clarkston High School gym.
Back on the floor, Thurman drove for a six-foot jump shot and 46-31 with 3:50 left.
Jamison followed with a fake and step move under the basket for 50-31.
Then Thurman squeezed away any last doubt with a three-pointer from the top of the key, 53-31.
Gar-Pal now advances to play Cusick -- a No. 3 seed -- at Mt. Spokane High School at 8 p.m. Friday.
The winner gains entry to the final eight and the state brackets at Spokane Arena.
After last year’s disappointment in the league championship game, Gar-Pal lost to Colton the next day to miss out on the last playoff spot.
"That was the most bitter I’ve ever felt," Thurman said.
A year later, as the day wore on last Friday at school, the senior guard’s thoughts were nearing one-track.
He cited senior English as the class hardest to concentrate in the day of the championship.
"That class is 90 percent reading," Thurman said. "I had no chance of it keeping my attention."
Pomeroy takes second-place slot: Gar-Pal’s win sent the Pirates down to face Liberty Christian for the last slot into state play. They won to claim a No. 2 seed, meeting Almira- Coulee-Hartline (No. 1 seed) at 8 p.m. Friday at Cheney High School.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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