Pirates bow out with loss to Tigers

WALLA WALLA–After dropping last week's opening-round contest to Garfield-Palouse, the Pirates headed into the stormy waters of the consolation bracket, facing the Prescott Tigers in a loser-out game at WWCC here Friday and being sent home after letting a half time lead evaporate and losing 53-41.

The Pirates finished the season 5-7 in Southeast 1B play, 6-16 on the season. To reach the District tourney, they won a tie-breaking game against SJEL 56-33, then fell to League Champions Garfield-Palouse. GarPal was edged by Oakesdale in the District 9 championship game 47-43, but advanced to Regionals with a 50-31 win over Prescott Saturday.

"It was a close game most of the game," said Head Coach Chris Wolf. "We were able to come back from a 12-2 deficit to start the game to take a 26-23 halftime lead. We weren't able to finish shots in the second half and had too many unforced turnovers."

The Pirates were behind by eight going into the fourth quarter and pulled to within three points but couldn't finish the run at the Tigers, who responded with some game-saving treys. "Defensively, we broke down on our assignments late in the game and didn't rebound as well late in the game as we needed to," Wolf said.

"We played hard tonight and I was really proud of their effort tonight," he said.

Pomeroy's shots were clanking off the iron in the first quarter and the Tigers were taking advantage of bad passing and ball handling miscues for easy baskets. Braedon Fruh sparked the Buccaneers in the first quarter with a bucket off a Byron Stallcop feed and a pair of three pointers.

In the second stanza, Byron Stallcop calmly popped in back-to-back buckets to start the long crawl back into the game, 20-16. Trent Gwinn took the Tigers by the tail and hit a baseline set shot, followed by a baseline driver to pull Pomeroy withing two: 22-20.

Stallcop split a pair at the charity stripe then Gwinn took a feed off a rebound, drove the key and scored, drawing the foul. The and-one gave the Buccaneers a 24-22 lead. He followed with another bucket and the half ended 26-23 on Omar Velazco's single free throw for Prescott.

The stunned Tigers didn't stay that way for long. Victor Garcia, who scored a game-high 23 points, gave the edge back to Prescott with a bucket and a trey, part of a 9-0 run in the first 3½ minutes of the third quarter.

Evan Bartels and Gwinn responded, Bartels picking up a loose ball caused by Gwinn, and scoring two points, then Gwinn injecting his hypersonic key drive for a bucket.

But the Tigers had answers for Pomeroy, with V. Garcia and Jon Cardenas both draining treys, and Miguel Ayala scoring to push the lead to 40-30 with about a minute left in the third quarter.

Trailing by eight at the beginning of the fourth, Gwinn gave the Pirates hope by nailing a three pointer after both teams grappled scorelessly for the first minute, Prescott employing the full-court press.

Stallcop drove the key and scored to make it 40-37-and the Pirates had a chance to make a ballgame out of it. But Tiger V. Garcia dialed in his three-point shot and hit two baskets that countered two-point baskets popped in by Bartels and Gwinn.

Lagging by five points with 3:49 remaining, the Pirates put on a stop, forcing a Tiger turnover. But they didn't convert and Valezco hurt the Bucs with another trey at 2:30 in the fourth.

Prescott's full-court pressure kept the Pirates off balance the final couple minutes. V. Garcia capitalized with another couple field goals to seal with win 53-41.

Pomeroy 41, Prescott 53 (2-21)

Pom 12 14 6 9- 41

Pre 17 6 17 13-53

Pomeroy (41) Braedon Fruh 3 0-0 8, Trent Gwinn 9 1-1 20 Evan Bartels 2 0-0 4, Trevin Kimble 1 0-0 2, Brodie Magill 0 0-0 0, Byron Stallcop 3 1-2 7, Danner Maves 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 2-3 41

Prescott (53) Omar Velazco 4 3-6 12, Victor Garcia 9 0-0 23, Antonio Hernandez 2 0-0 4, Jonathan Cardenas 2 2-4 7, Miguel Ayala 2 0-2 4. Totals 19 5-12 53

3-point: Pomeroy-Fruh 2, Gwinn. Prescott-Velazco, Garcia 5, Cardenas.