SPOKANE — Usually it’s Neah Bay that’s the more talented, deeper team.
The one whose style wears on and eventually wears down the opposition.
Friday in the Class 1B semifinals at Spokane Arena, the Red Devils experienced a startling reversal of fortunes in a 63-23 loss to the six-time defending state champion Colton Wildcats.
Neah Bay now faces Republic in the third-place game at 11:15 a.m. Saturday.
Neah Bay is a solid basketball program, with trips to the state tournament in seven of the past eight years.
Colton has turned into an absolute juggernaut under coach Clark Vining, an institution in Washington high school sports akin to the Bellevue football team.
Wildcat players are indoctrinated early, marinating in full-court man-to-man pressure defense, a furious offensive pace and knockdown jump shooting from grade school on up.
It would have been difficult for the Red Devils to topple Colton and end the team’s now 69-game winning streak on their best day.
Friday contest was miles away from that.
Neah Bay turned the ball over early and often, 11 times alone in the first period – it had 20 in the game — along with committing nine team fouls, and trailed 29-7 after one quarter.
Red Devils coach McCaulley perceived a disparity in the way those fouls were whistled.
“I don’t like to [gripe] about the officiating, but when you come out and they are hounding you and you’re driving the ball into them and you can’t get one call but they can call the same thing the other way?” McCaulley said.
“And they shoot 31 times from the free-throw line in the first half and we don’t get a shot at it?
“You can’t tell me we don’t play a style where we can’t get a foul sometime.
“I don’t get that part. And yeah, they are moving their feet and are a damn good team, but they are riding you all the way down the court.”
“But we didn’t play well. We didn’t play well at all.”
The Red Devils struggled in all aspects of the game.
“We didn’t get into our offense, we didn’t rebound well, but holy cow, it’s just disappointing that one lady [official] calls so many fouls on us. That’s BS, that’s crap.”
With the Red Devils having difficulties even getting the ball up court and into their offense and Colton cashing in shot after shot, frustration soon set in.
Neah Bay handed out some punishing fouls, sending Colton marching to the free-throw line.
That was about the only place the Red Devils could limit the Wildcats, who hit only 22 of 48 for the game to Neah Bay’s 9 of 12.
Colton led 44-15 at halftime.
“I told them we were going to play it out, and to keep our heads up, and that’s what we tried to do,” McCaulley said.
The Wildcats’ biggest lead of the night, 58-17, came with less than four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
Faye Chartraw led Neah Bay with 16 points and 7 rebounds.
Colton had three primary scorers, Savannah Chadwick with 16, Zoe Moser with 15 and Maryann Jacobs with 14.
“We’ll get after it tomorrow for third,” McCaulley said.
“I think we match up well with Republic.”
Colton 63, Neah Bay 23
Neah Bay 7 8 6 2 —23
Colton 29 15 15 4 — 63
Individual Scoring
Neah Bay (23)
Chartraw 16, Tyler 3, Doherty 2, Ha. Greene 2, Hol. Greene, J. Greene, McCaulley, Johnson, Haltunnen, Hill, Jimmicum.
Colton (63)
Chadwick 16, Moser 15, Jacobs 14, Kimberling 5, R. Meyer 4, Devorak 4, Druffel 2, Schultheis 2, H. Meyer 1.
