Cardinals Make It To Final 8

SPOKANE - Cool and confident, the Cardinals rolled up their sleeves and went to work like it was just another day at the office, dismantling the Brewster Bears 63-50 in the first round of the state playoffs Friday.

They are now in the final eight, returning to Spokane next to play Redmond's Bear Creek Grizzlies at 2 p.m. on Thursday.

The Brewster Bears' offense kept up with WP's hoop barrage for a while, but the Cardinals' methodical productivity gave them a leading edge during much of the game before they opened up a lead to which Brewster had no response in the fourth quarter.

A combination of superior rebounding, meandering layups and long-distance field goals overwhelmed the Brewster defense while the Cardinals were disruptive enough under their own basket to get the Bears off their game.

It's a formula that has worked well all season and did the trick again at University High School.

"We had some matchup problems in the first half, but we adjusted," head coach T.J. Scott said about striking a balance between covering Brewster's two best players and filling the gap elsewhere on the court.

"It took us a while to pull away," he said.

Brewster was the first to score with a trey, but Matt Hamilton, the rock-solid post who came from nowhere this season to excel under the board on both ends, scored after drawing a foul and quickly evened the totals 3-3.

The Cardinals out-treyed the Bears, with Zach Bartlow leading the air assault. The Bears came back with a trey, but their points weren't enough to offset the Cardinals' scoring appetite, which put them ahead 13-9 at the end of the first quarter.

Right into the second quarter, T.J. Hofer had the balled stripped out of left field but came back moments later for a fast break and a layup to put his team ahead 15- 11. The teams traded layups for a while until a Bears' trey brought them up alongside 18-18. Zach Bartlow followed immediately with his own trey.

A counter attack pushed Brewster ahead on the score board, but Kris Cady evened the totals, and Bartlow gave the Cardinals a psychologically critical two-point lead just before the first-half buzzer.

"We weren't bounding real well during the first half," Hofer said.

But the rebounding, which has been a hallmark of the Cardinals' offense, bounced back in the second half. The Bears kept up until the score reached 35-35, after which Bartlow, Hamilton, Cady, Dustin Wooderchak and Tyler Baxter pushed their team ahead with second-chance scores and free throws.

By the end of the third quarter, WP was up 46-40.

"We just figured it out and got on a roll," Hofer said. "We didn't look back after that."

Bartlow led off the lastperiod scoring drive with a big trey, followed by an equally impressive threepointer from Baxter, which gave the Cardinals a 12-point margin and prompted Brewster to call a time out and regroup.

But by then the Bears were clearly off their game, struggling with execution even when they got their

Rooter Bus To Spokane

A rooter bus for Cardinals Fans will leave the Waitsburg High School parking lot at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday for Spokane. Tipoff at the Arena downtown is at 2 p.m. Cost for transportation will be $5. You will need to pay Denise Winnett. Please remember: Rooters will be responsible for their own ticket to the event and all meals, etc. Community members are invited to ride the rooter bus. Elementary and middle school students must be accompanied by an adult.

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Waitsburg-Prescott vs Brewster 63-50

WP 13 16 17 17 63 Brewster 9 18 13 10 50

WP (63): Zach Bartlow 21; Matt Hamilton 13; Dustin Wooderchak 8; T.J Hofer 8; Kris Cady 6; Tyler Baxter 6; Guillermo Hernandez 1. shots off and unable to slow down WP's long-distance scores until they answered with a trey of their own well into the period.

Bear star Stockton Taylor tried to rally against the redand blue tide, bringing his team back within nine with 2:30 minutes to go, but there would be no more Bears scores after that. Two more field goals from Hofer and Hamilton sealed the Cardinals' victory at 63-50.

"It's exciting to actually get this far," Hofer said.

Scott said his team has taken care of the ball, allowing only four turnovers in the district championship game against the Dayton Bulldogs last weekend and seven in Friday's game against the Bears.

That stinginess and the Cardinals' rebounding efforts have contributed to WP's leads in the playoffs. Secondchance scores alone have added about a dozen points per game, he said.