Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Oakesdale senior Wesley Castanon drives the baseline against Naselle March 1 as the Nighthawks advanced to play on the tournament's last day.
The Oakesdale team gathers with the state 1B sixth-place trophy. The Nighthawks won two loser-out games to make it to state, and two once they were in Spokane.
Senior guard Jacob Himes drives in the third quarter against Naselle. Himes scored 12 points in the win.
Sophomore Simon Anderson and brother Kieron inadvertently lock hands on defense against the Comets.
Their first opponent was drifting snow. Their second was Tulalip Heritage, which Oakesdale beat in a first round elimination game at Spokane Arena on their way to a four-game run at state, finishing sixth, five years after concerns the school may have trouble fielding a team after the breakup of the Tekoa/Oakesdale cooperative.
On Wednesday morning, after another overnight snowfall, the question became how to get players and coaches into town to meet the bus. Coach Carl Crider drove his Suburban a hundred yards down his driveway on his farm and got stuck.
"Most of us were drifted out," said senior guard Evan Henning, who lives on a farm near Thornton.
As the morning wore on, plans were made. Assistant coach Kevin Young was in Tekoa, waiting out the storm after getting stuck twice in drifts near Farmington while checking roads for his other job as the district's transportation director.
Could someone get Crider on a snowmobile? Could he walk to town?
Young was arranging with his son to get himself on a snowmobile before he called the state road department. Young explained that he's the Oakesdale transportation director and also the assistant basketball coach and he needed to get this team up to state. The foreman agreed to re-direct a road-grader that Young could follow on closed Highway 27 to Oakesdale.
"He was punching holes in drifts taller than my pickup," Young said of the drive back.
At Crider's farm, a neighbor from four miles down arrived with a tractor with an attached plow and snowblower. The coach followed him out his driveway.
Two miles down, team members and brothers Matt Hockett and Kit Hockett stood in the snow by the side of the road near their house. Crider picked them up in the Suburban and the three of them were on their way.
Eventually, everyone reached the bus, except for players Kieron and Simon Anderson, two more brothers on the team, from out by Farmington, who rode up to state in a car with their mom up through Idaho.
All roads lead to Spokane Arena in the first days of March.
Once there, the team stayed in a hotel three nights, making it to the tournament's last day, when Kieron Anderson, a senior center, was named to the 1B all-tournament first team.
FIRST ROUND
Oakesdale 66-Tulalip Heritage 50
The word came down that morning. Due to the snow and so many players living outside town, once the team got to Spokane, they would most likely be staying that night. Arrangements were made. No matter what happened, they would stay in a motel.
Oakesdale, a no. 12 seed, stayed one night, then two, then three, eventually making it to Saturday morning to play in the fourth and sixth-place game against no. 2 seed Odessa.
The path to get there went from a win over Tulalip Heritage in the loser-out first round, a loss to Yakama Nation in the quarterfinals and a win over Naselle – which narrowly eliminated Gar/Pal the first night.
Against Tulalip Heritage, a Native American school north of Everett, for the second consecutive game, Kieron Anderson's inside work for Oakesdale and Wesley Castanon from outside put the Nighthawks out front to keep their season alive.
Anderson scored 19 points with 12 rebounds and Castanon 14 points.
"We thought we could do well against Tulalip but there's no certainties," said Crider. "You've gotta show up and perform."
The game started with no shots falling for either team. Tulalip's Josh Miranda hit a three-pointer at the buzzer of the first quarter, still 11-10 Oakesdale.
In the second, Castanon hit his second three-pointer followed by his third. Evan Henning downed another from outside, in front of Tulalip Heritage's bench, and Oakesdale went up 22-14.
Castanon, a senior whose other sport is high school rodeo, passed up another outside shot to send the ball to Anderson, who hit a fadeaway jumper, a 10-foot swish from the baseline.
Matt Hockett got called for a reach-in foul after missing a shot after a fast break. Anderson nullified it with another 10-foot jumper for a seven-point Oakesdale lead.
Oakesdale kept working.
Henning drew a charge and hit again from the corner for 29-21 at the half.
Castanon opened the second half with another three.
Jacob Himes followed a Henning miss with a score and foul. Castanon again – from 12 feet for 37-27.
How many bullets did the saddlebronc rider have?
Castanon then denied a Tulalip shot, starting a fast break to Anderson, a score and foul.
Oakesdale led 46-35 at the end of the third.
Anderson got his fourth foul with six minutes to go then his fifth with three.
But the Nighthawks, up 12, finished it off. After the buzzer and presentation of the sportsmanship award to Anderson – by Oakesdale superintendent Jake Dingman – the Nighthawk fans sang "Happy Birthday, Mr. Dingman."
He'd already given a present – along with the snow -- approving the motel. The team gave him one back.
QUARTERFINALS
Yakama Nation 62-Oakesdale 45
After winning Wednesday, Oakesdale advanced to the state quarterfinals to face the flurry of Yakama Nation, led by the Strom cousins, junior guards Bryan and Bryce Strom.
"It was kind of like getting thrown in a beehive," said Coach Crider. "Their speed and quickness and aggressiveness got us on our heels."
Oakesdale started the game in a matchup zone defense and switched to man-to-man after two minutes.
The Nighthawks finished with 18 turnovers and shot 1-for-16 for three-point attempts. Yakama Nation scored 23 points off turnovers.
Oakesdale fought to stay in the game, getting the margin under 10 points at instances in the second half.
Kieron Anderson led again with 22 points while Bryan Strom scored 18 for the Eagles and Mylo Jones had 13. Yakama Nation advanced to beat Almira/Coulee/Hartline in the state semifinals before losing in the championship game to Sunnyside Christian.
Oakesdale 68-Naselle 52
Could Naselle really matchup with Kieron Anderson?
A 2 p.m. tip-off elimination game Friday afternoon led to another big output from the center, scoring 20 points while Matt Hockett added 13, Jacob Himes 12 and Wesley Castanon 12.
"Naselle's real disciplined. Defensively, fundamentally hard-nosed," said Coach Crider. "We just played a really solid game."
At halftime, the Oakesdale girls basketball team came out to receive the 1B girls scholastic award with a 3.991 grade-point average.
In the third quarter, more thing-of-beauty passing from Oakesdale followed and the Nighthawks held control. Late in the fourth, the starters came out and Nighthawks' future went in and finished the game.
FOURTH-SIXTH PLACE GAME
Odessa 63-Oakesdale 45
A year ago last fall Odessa eliminated Garfield/Palouse in a blowout in the 1B football playoffs as mostly sophomores. This year, as juniors at state basketball, three of them with 1988 haircuts – long in the back, short in front – they met Oakesdale to decide fourth and sixth place.
After a tight first half, Oakesdale down by four, Odessa took over the game in the third quarter, cruising to win 63-45.
"I had a feeling we'd be able to knock them off," Oakesdale coach Crider said. "But up there at state against the best competition, you can't have lapses."
It opened up and back, steals and denials, a big block by Kieron Anderson of Tim DeWulf, a sophomore center, his wavy blond hair nipping the back of his jersey, and it was tied 12-12 at the end of the first quarter.
An Evan Henning three put the Nighthawks up 17-16 and the Oakesdale zone contained, for the moment, guard Ryan Moffett, who scored 48 points two nights before in the first round for a state 1B tournament record.
Wesley Castanon hit from outside off a Henning cross-key assist. Sophomore guard Simon Anderson threw to his brother Kieron on a cut and drive, 22-21 Oakesdale. Kit Hockett drew a charge on Moffett. Then Odessa's Marcus King scored two, fouled by Kieron Anderson, if not also Jacob Himes.
King hit the free throw for a four-point Tigers' lead at the half.
Odessa went into the locker room to listen to their coach, or Metallica "And Justice For All," and came out in the third quarter and quickly built their lead.
Matt Hockett got called for his third foul, reaching in after his missed shot, Odessa up 32-24. Moffett then hit a three and the Tigers were up by 11.
Kieron Anderson scored from 15 feet on the baseline to cut the lead back to seven but Moffett delivered another three. Odessa sophomore Jett Nelson got a steal and lay-in and Moffett looked at Castanon and shot again, three, 45-30 Odessa.
Hockett got a baseline drive and score for 34-45 and Moffett answered, with a drive himself and Hockett's fourth foul.
Odessa led by 14 at the end of three, 48-34.
It kept up. Soon, Moffett threw to DeWulf for 61-39. DeWulf again scored inside off an assist and it was 63-39.
Odessa, finishing fourth in state, had one senior on their roster.
Oakesdale went home with something too for the trophy case.
"The most satisfying thing is that this group won four loser-out games... " Crider said of the Nighthawks' state run. "They'll have a lot to reminisce about when they get together in future years."
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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