Ephrata turns playoff opener into track meet

Tigers 65, Jackrabbits 32

EPHRATA - When the Quincy Jackrabbits and Ephrata Tigers have matched up this season, tempo has been a big key.

The Tigers, with their deeper bench and experience, prefer to run all night long. The Jacks, younger and thinner, need to keep the score low and their legs fresh.

In Tuesday's Central Washington Athletic Conference district playoff opener, the second-seeded Tigers made the seventh-seeded Jacks play their run-and-gun style for most of the night. The result was a 65-32 trouncing that moved the Tigers (19-2 overall) one win away from a 2A state tournament berth.

Ephrata will play No. 3 East Valley on Friday at 6 p.m. in Toppenish, with the winner earning a spot to state. Quincy, meanwhile, faces a loser-out game on Friday, a 6 p.m. start in Selah against Wapato. East Valley beat Wapato 77-52 in first-round action on Tuesday.

Perhaps an even bigger key to Ephrata's win was rebounding. The Tigers had a 9-5 edge on the boards at halftime, but ballooned it to 34-14 by game's end. Ephrata's tall timbers, Daniel Simon and Patrick Simon, combined for 15 rebounds and several putback baskets.

"That was something we really focused on in the second half, was rebounding better," Tigers head coach Brandon Evenson said. "We played solid defense all night long."

Quincy head coach Wade Petersen knew his team would have to enforce a slower tempo, but a bigger factor in the loss, he believed, was his team's fundamental failures on defense.

"We just didn't execute very well tonight," Petersen said. "We gave them too many easy looks and they made those shots when they were open.

"Obviously, Ephrata's very talented and they have a lot of depth," he added. "Their game is real fast, so want the game to be real slow. That's no surprise to anybody."

The Tigers mustered a 14-7 lead after one quarter, then kicked things into high gear. They began running the floor, crashing the offensive glass and burying wide-open looks. Daniel Simon hit a driving layup and Derek Miller drained a deep 3-pointer, putting Ephrata's halftime lead at 32-19.

Daniel Simon led all scorers with 17 points, hitting 8 of 11 from the floor, but it was fellow seniors Miller and Ryan Lutz who came up just as clutch.

"Quincy came out in a triangle-and-two defense to shut Pat and Daniel down," Evenson said. "I told them, 'The rest of you are going to be open - you've got to knock them down,' and they did that."

Lutz was 6 of 10 from the field and finished with 15 points, four rebounds and four steals. Miller scored 10 on 3 for 3 shooting.

Ephrata continued to build its lead in the third period, as a Daniel Simon tip-in and two Patrick Simon free throws stretched the margin to 38-24. Lutz drilled a 15-foot jumper late in the quarter, and the rout was on.

"Once you get the lead, it's easier to impose your tempo just because they have to catch you," Evenson said.

Quincy never got much going offensively, shooting only 33 percent (12 of 36) for the game. Ephrata finished at 50 percent (24 of 48). Jesse Gonzales and Eric Martin had eight points apiece for the Jacks.

Quincy could have its hands full trying to deal with the CWAC's leading scorer - Willie Blodgett - when the Jacks meet Wapato on Friday. What the Wolves lack in size they make up for with speed and shooting touch.

"They've got a lot of perimeter shooters," Petersen said of Wapato. "It'll be a little different than tonight - tonight we had a lot of big guys to deal with. They'll be much smaller and it'll be a different game plan for us."

Petersen also expects a better effort out of his players.

"Now it's one-and-done - you lose and you're out," he said. "We've got to somehow pull it together and move on to the next game.

Ephrata swept its season series with East Valley, and Evenson isn't concerned with making adjustments for Friday's matchup with the Red Devils.

"They're a good, solid team," he said. "We've just got to come and practice and get refocused for East Valley. We need to continue to play good, strong defense and just run our stuff.

"We just want to keep playing with passion, keep playing defense, keep rebounding and do what got us here. We don't want to change too many things."