Warden gets crack at state tournament berth against LRS

When JR Delgado, Adam Richins, and Tanner Skone were seventh-graders the trio traveled to Lewiston, Idaho for an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) tournament.

There was nothing amateur about their first opponent Spokane Elite.

Playing at the rim in the seventh grade, the all-star team ran circles around the kids from Warden and won 96-8. Delgado scored the eight points.

Wes Richins, now their head high school coach, had a message for his young players after the game: “If you guys stick together you’re going to accomplish some things.”

Now as juniors, that core group — coupled with senior guards Sergio Vela and Pedro Gonzalez — has Warden in the regional round for the second year in a row.

As a sophomore, Delgado helped Warden capture a Central Washington 2B South (CW2B) league championship, was selected to the CW2B all-league first team and averaged 17 points per game.

Starting on JV for most of their sophomore seasons, Adam Richins and Skone joined the varsity late to help with depth.

All three players were all-league this season

“Right now they’re obviously a big part of this to go with the leadership of those senior guards,” Wes Richins said. “It’s been huge. They’ve been playing together, they know each other, they have developed a friendship and teamwork and so it’s been neat to see them emerge and I think they feed off each other.”

After finishing as district runner-up to Brewster, the two-seed Warden drew three-seed Lind-Ritzville/Sprague (LRS) at Mt. Spokane High School. Despite being the higher seed, the Cougars have to travel 116 miles to the Broncos’ 76.

With the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) wanting to pair schools with boys and girls teams in the regional field at the same site, Warden’s game against LRS was added to Mt. Spokane’s slate since the LRS girls play St. George’s right after.

However, the perceived slight isn’t seen as an issue.

“It’s always going to be fun,” Vela said. “We’re going to spend the night there Friday night and just wake up and play our game.”

Wes Richins echoed Vela’s sentiments and explained that, although his team still has to travel like the underdog, Warden is the ranked team with some experience to rely on.

The Cougars traveled to Cheney High School last year to play Liberty (Spangle), a team that would go on to finish second in state. Delgado scored 24 points in the 68-52 loss.

“These guys, they really don’t care,” Wes Richins said. “They just love to play basketball and we believe in each other and when we play together as a team we’re a tough team to beat. I think last year’s experience is helping us quite a bit because last year as a little novelty. We had never been there before and this is kind of a new thing. This year we expected to be there and we expect to compete and do well and so it’s a little bit different approach.”

LRS will look to counter Warden with Wyatt Roeger and Jacob Saetre. Saetre and Roeger scored 16 points each in a 57-46 win over DeSales that moved LRS into regionals.

“Their point guard, Saetre, is pretty good,” Vela said. “I respect that kid.”

Warden will move from Class 2B back to 1A next season so, for the foreseeable future, it will be the team’s final shot at making it to the B tournament in the Spokane Arena. A tournament that Wes Richins attended as a young boy and a venue that will host National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament games just weeks after the high school state tournament wraps up.

“We want to get to the (Spokane) Arena and kind of put Warden basketball on the map a little bit,” Wes Richins said. “A lot of people don’t even know that we play basketball here. Everyone thinks that we wrestle, but we have a pretty good basketball team here, too.”

Girls basketball

Lind-Ritzville/Sprague hopes third time is the charm

RITZVILLE — After bowing out in regionals in 2015 and 2014, Lind-Ritzville/Sprague the third time to the final 16 is the charm.

LRS takes on No. 8 St. George’s, noon, on Saturday at Mt. Spokane High School.

St. George’s advanced to meet LRS after a tight 42-41 win over Colfax in the Northeast 2B Subregional tournament.

LRS advanced after beating DeSales 50-41 in its subregional tournament.

Three Lions all-league

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake Christian Academy girls basketball had three all-league selections.

Anna Yarbro was the MVP of the Central Washington 1B league and first team. Dani Sandberg joined Yarbro on the first team. Alex Toevs made the second team.