Pirates stand tall against Nighthawks in consolation final

DAYTON - After both teams won their own Feb. 15 consolation bracket semifinal games by single digits, the Pomeroy Pirates beat the Oakesdale Nighthawks 51-39 on Feb. 17 in the 1B District 9 boys consolation bracket final in Dayton. As a result, Pomeroy heads to the 1B state tournament while ending Oakesdale's season.

Oakesdale would begin with control of the game, breaking a 5-5 tie with 2:50 in the opening quarter off a Jackson Perry 3-pointer to take a 3-0 lead. Pomeroy would be unable to stop the Nighthawks from expanding on their lead and the Pirates went into the second quarter down 14-8.

The well then went dry for Oakesdale. Pomeroy would tie the game at 14 apiece with 2:40 to go in the first half, and the Nighthawks first points of the frame didn't come until 1:04 left in the half after Perry made two-of-three free throw attempts after being fouled on an attempted 3-pointer.

The Pirates held the Nighthawks scoreless for the final minute of the quarter and Oakesdale went into halftime down 20-16.

Scoring would continue to be hard to come by for Oakesdale in the third quarter. Pomeroy outscored the Nighthawks 13-3 in the frame, and the Pirates headed into the final eight minutes of regulation up 33-19.

Oakesdale began the final quarter with a 9-2 run, pulling the Nighthawks to within seven with 3:59 left in the contest and almost-doubling its total offensive output from the second and third quarters.

Pomeroy called a timeout after the run and kept Oakesdale at arms-length for the rest of the frame, outscoring the Nighthawks 16-11 in the final four minutes, punching the Pirates' ticket to state in the process and ending Oakesdale's season.

"It's just hard to win when you score two points in a quarter and two points in another quarter," Oakesdale head coach Carl Crider said. "The odds just aren't in your favor. You got to make shots and we weren't able to do it tonight."

As the fourth quarter went underway and Oakesdale found itself down double-digits, the Nighthawks employed a full-court press to try and limit the scoring opportunities for Pomeroy.

"We were down 13 or 14 going into the fourth," Crider said. "So, then at that point, it's just about jumping the game up and try to create turnovers and possessions. I was kind of hoping to not have to go to that, but that's what we did and I thought we did a decent job at it, but, again, we weren't able to knock down some shots we needed to and they were able to get some run-outs on either a steal or blocked shot or rebound we weren't able to get back on."

Despite the loss, Crider finished the season with Coach of the Year honors for his work with the Oakesdale boys this season, and hopes to build off the success the Nighthawks had from the 2022 season into 2023.

"I think, by in-large, I would consider this a successful season," Crider said. "Coming off of last year, if you would've told me that we would win 14 games – I might not have known we would've started 8-2 and have a four-game losing streak in the middle – but I think in-large it was a pretty successful season. I think we found out a lot about ourselves, we competed hard, we got to the loser-out game to get to Regionals. I do feel like it was within our grasp to achieve a little bit more, it just didn't happen."

Jackson Perry led the Nighthawks with 22 points in the loss.

Trevin Kimble paced the Pirates with 27 total points while Ollie Severs added 15.

Pomeroy openened the WIAA 1B State Tournament with a Regional round game on Feb. 21 against Muckleshoot Tribal in Pomeroy. Results were unavailable at press time.

OAKESDALE (14-10, 8-6)

Logan Brown 3 0-0 7, Alex McHargue 1 0-0 2, Emeric Anderson 0 2-2 2, Jackson Perry 8 3-4 22, Shawn Bober 1 0-0 2, Will Lanius 1 0-0 3, Austin Goyke 0 0-0 0, Ryker Reed 0 1-2 1. Totals 14 6-8 39.

POMEROY (16-7, 13-4)

Oliver Severs 6 2-4 15, Brady Bott 0 0-0 0, Jett Slusser 0 0-0 0, Trevin Kimble 7 11-12 27, Brodie Magill 2 1-2 6, Boone Schmidt 0 0-0 0, Jayden Slusser 0 0-0 0, Trace Roberts 1 1-3 3. Totals 16 15-21 51.

3-point goals – Perry 3, Brown, Lanius, Kimble 2, Severs, Magill.