River Ridge rallies after upset to knock out Ellensburg in loser-out game

Morale is a bit higher after that one.

“They always say winning cures a lot, you know,” River Ridge High School coach John Barbee said. “It definitely cures the blues.”

It seemed to, anyway.

The top-ranked Hawks bounced back from an upset loss in the Class 2A state tournament quarterfinals to knock off Ellensburg, 64-50, in a loser-out game Friday at the Yakima Valley SunDome.

“We’re still disappointed with the way we played yesterday,” Barbee said. “I think we just had something to prove. We wanted to be ourselves today.”

The Hawks certainly looked closer to the crisp, collected team they’ve been all season.

“There were a lot of emotions going into today’s game,” senior guard Jaden White said. “We just knew if we came out and played for each other today, maybe we’d get some momentum going and could just get ourselves back up to pace.”

River Ridge settled in early, and never trailed after White hit a pair of 3-pointers on consecutive possessions midway through the first quarter.

White scored a team-high 14 points as the Hawks returned to usual form — whipping the ball around the court, looking for an open shooter. Seven players had multiple baskets.

Kobe Key added 12 points for the Hawks, while LaBrandon Price, Kelle Sanders and Issiah Scott had eight apiece.

“We just had to trust each other that we were going to make a play,” White said. “And we had to find each other when we were open down the stretch. Being able to talk on defense, communicate better — just all around, just play for each other.”

Ellensburg kept the lead within single digits until the end of the third, when Sanders grabbed an offensive board and banked in a 2-foot jumper to extend River Ridge’s advantage to 10 points.

The Bulldogs cut their deficit to nine when Coleman Sparling converted a 3-point play 45 seconds into the fourth, but that’s as close as Ellensburg got.

Sparling scored a game-high 20 points, while Blake Gibson added another 18.

“He’s a good player,” Barbee said of Sparling. “He’s one of the better players in 2A. I thought Kelle Sanders did a great job just really making it tough on him.

“Good players like that, you may not hold them scoreless, but you just try to make it tough for them every single possession, and I thought we did that.”

The Hawks relentlessly pressed to clog up Sparling and Ellensburg’s offense. They forced 25 turnovers, and stole the ball 14 times — led by Key, who had four.

River Ridge (23-3) will play No. 10 Wapato (20-5) at 9:30 a.m. Saturday in the fourth/sixth-place game. The Hawks knocked the Wolves out in the state regionals last year.

“It should be a fun game,” Barbee said. “It’s kind of how you want to go out, with a chance to win.”

White said he doesn’t want to settle for anything less than fourth.

“We’ve only got one more game with all five seniors,” he said. “And after that, it’s over. So, just playing with everything we’ve got these last couple of games is what we’re trying to do.”

This story was originally published March 4, 2016 at 8:27 PM with the headline "River Ridge rallies after upset to knock out Ellensburg in loser-out game."