Story Photos
 LCC's Clint Burgoyne splits a pair of Spokane defender as drives downcourt during the Red Devils' game on Friday. Bill Wagner / The Daily News
|
Red Devils shut down Spokane in tourney opener
Saturday, November 29, 2008 5:07 PM PST
By Rick McCorkle
Printable version
E-mail this articleSolid defense goes a long way in winning basketball games, and the Lower Columbia College Red Devils turned in a stellar defensive performance in the opening night of the Red Devil Classic at Truman Myklebust Gym on Friday.
The Devils’ defense left LCC coach Jim Roffler almost giddy when he talked about it after his team’s 70-60 victory over Spokane.
“I thought our defensive intensity was phenomenal,” Roffler gushed in the locker room. “We held them (the Sasquatch) to 32 percent shooting. I told the guys before the game that games are won with defense, and they responded. I don’t remember too many years when we gave that kind of effort on the first night of the Red Devil Classic.”
In the tournament’s other first-round games, Clackamas beat Grays Harbor 102-81, Yakima Valley topped Everett 84-65, and Southwestern Oregon got past Peninsula 86-77.
In today’s consolation games, Grays Harbor meets Everett at 1 p.m., and Peninsula takes on Spokane at 3 p.m. In tonight’s semifinals, Clackamas squares off with Yakima Valley at 6 p.m., and Southwestern Oregon meets Lower Columbia at 8 p.m..
The tournament concludes Sunday with consolation games at noon and 2 p.m., followed by the championship at 4 p.m.
After battling Spokane to a 28-28 halftime deadlock, the Devils played most of the second half without sophomore center Alex King, who picked up his third and fourth fouls in the first four minutes. Without King, Roffler moved sophomore Marice Tolliver into the post, who responded with three driving layups and a free throw during a two-minute span as the Devils built a 39-34 lead.
King and Tolliver finished with 21 points apiece, with Tolliver pulling nine rebounds and King seven.
Without King, the Devils continued playing rock-solid defense, which held Spokane without a bucket for more than seven and a half minutes. Despite missing a variety of layups, short jumpers and 3-pointers during the span, the Sasquatch hit seven free throws compared to a lone Tolliver layup as Spokane tied the game at 41-41 with 8:27 left.
“We had stretches with serious foul trouble, and had to play some people out of position,” Roffler said. “We made some mistakes and didn’t play smart all the time, but I thought the effort was outstanding.”
King returned after a Spokane timeout with 7:51 left, and keyed an 8-0 run with a layup and a free throw as the Devils took a 49-41 lead.
“It’s a lot easier to create advantages when Alex is in the game,” Roffler said. “He’s quite a presence, and with him out of the game they (the Sasquatch) were able to stay tougher on the perimeter. When he came back in it loosened up things for us on the perimeter.”
A 3-pointer from Spokane’s Brendan Ingebritsen, followed by a steal and layup by Brad Johnson cut the Devils’ lead to 49-46, but consecutive layups from Jeray Key and a pair of freebies from King pushed LCC ahead 55-46 with 3:40 left.
Key finished with 12 points and five rebounds in 26 minutes off the bench.
Spokane sliced its deficit to 58-53 following a Zach Humphrey trey with two minutes left, but the Sasquatch would get no closer. A King layup started a 9-2 run for the Devils, which ended with a putback by King for a 67-55 advantage with 45 seconds left.
The Devils’ defense forced 32 turnovers and held Spokane to 32 percent shooting (17-52) for the game, which included 8-30 in the final 20 minutes. LCC’s Achille’s heel was its free throw shooting, where the Devils made half of their 32 attempts.
“We’ll be working on free throw shooting during Saturday’s shootaround,” Roffler said. “When we’re hitting 50 percent of our free throws and missed all wight of our 3-point attempts, we had to play damn good defense to win the game.”
Red Devils 70, Sasquatch 60
SPOKANE (60) — Damal Neil 10, Zack Humphrey 13, Derek Gianukakis 4, Kevin Cameron 4, Griffon Jones 2, Brendan Ingebritsen 12, Chris Pynch 9, Luke Clift 3, Brad Johnson 2, Justin Anderson 1, Cole Youngers 0.
LOWER COLUMBIA (70) ---- Alex King 21, Marice Tolliver 21, Clint Burgoyne 9, Ryan Freeman 3, Tim Roffler 0, Jeray Key 12, Conrad Ritchie 2, Jerald Ardoin 2, Garrett DeGraaff 0, Kekoa Carvalho 0, Al Dickerson 0.
Halftime: LCC 28, SCC 28.
Past Month's Most Commented Stories