Tigers fall on the road to Selah

SELAH — After being down by 15 at the end of the first half, the attempted Tiger comeback fell short Friday night in Ephrata’s regular-season finale, falling on the road to the Vikings 60-50.

The Tigers cut the Selah lead to five points early in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t get over the final hill and take the lead.

“Too big a hole to begin with,” Ephrata head coach Rick Walter said. “(Selah) played good, had some energy – it’s their place, it’s senior night. Good crowd. They hit some shots, and we did not hit shots. You’ve got to hit some shots down the stretch.”

The two squads traded baskets early in the third quarter, with Tiger senior Cody Black connecting on a three-pointer to kickstart an Ephrata run; the Tigers outscored Selah 14-6 over the final 5:12 of the third frame.

“A three at any point can be big and change the momentum,” Walter said. “We want Cody (Black) shooting them; if he feels like it’s going in, we want him shooting them. We didn’t get a lot of clean looks tonight, but he knows we’re not going to get a lot of clean looks being a senior.”

Ephrata had an opportunity to cut the lead to three points at the start of the third quarter, but a missed layup combined with a three-point play for the Vikings helped Selah regain a double-digit lead, eventually holding on for a 60-50 win over the Tigers.

“It just didn’t go that way — missed it, and gave up an and-one on the other end,” Walter said. “That’s just how it goes sometimes. We’re still going to fight and keep playing.”

Ephrata opened the game with a 9-5 lead midway through the first quarter, but the Vikings began connecting on shots as the game wore on; Selah closed out the first quarter with a buzzer-beating three-pointer to take a 17-9 lead after the first eight minutes. After scoring just five points in the second quarter, Ephrata senior Cameron Zabala connected on a buzzer-beater of his own to make the score 31-16 in favor of Selah.

“I think (Selah) did a good job of sharing the ball really well,” Walter said. “We didn’t do a very good job of rotating on the backside and they got some easy ones, their bigs got going on the rim, which we knew were good. We didn’t answer that. In the second half, I thought we did a better job on it.”

Ephrata junior Payton Riggs scored 26 points in Friday’s game, 10 of which came in the third quarter and helped the Tigers get back into the game. Black scored 11 points in the game, nine coming in the third quarter. 

“He’s a good player, he’s pretty shifty,” Walter said of Riggs. “He got it going a little bit tonight, and we need that going down the stretch.”

Friday’s loss was the third in five games for the Tigers, joining a 42-38 loss to Ellensburg on Jan. 26 and Tuesday’s 54-49 loss to league-leading Grandview.

“We’ve got to make some of those shots,” Walter said. “I feel like we’ve been in all of our losses, we’re always in it — we play pretty hard, that’s kind of our thing, guys scrap — but at some point, you’ve got to make some shots.”

Ephrata will be the No. 6 seed in the Central Washington Athletic Conference district tournament, which begins Wednesday. The Tigers will travel to face No. 3 seed East Valley (Yakima), who they split their matchups with this season; a 51-49 home win on Jan. 2 and a 72-60 road loss on Jan. 20.

While the teams have changed since the Tigers defeated the Red Devils last month, Walter said there’s still something to take away from the win.

“That was so long ago, I don’t know if we’ll take much from that — at least you take the confidence that you can compete with them,” Walter said. 

Before the boys tipped off their game, the Ephrata girls basketball team fell 66-39 to Selah. Ephrata girls basketball Head Coach Alain Black said the Tigers tried some new tactics ahead of next week’s district playoffs.

“We had a different gameplan coming into tonight,” Black said. “We wanted everyone to play, rest a few starters for Tuesday. Tonight really didn’t mean anything, districts is already set for us, so we came in with a different mindset tonight.”

The Tigers will play on the road against Selah on Tuesday. Black said Friday’s game helped prepare Ephrata for what Tuesday’s game will bring.

“Just get into that Yakima Valley basketball — what’s going to happen down here, know the game plan that way,” Black said. “Know that we have to keep them out of the key and box out well coming into next week.”

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.

Box Score

EPH: 9-7-19-15 50

SEL: 17-16-10-19 60

    Ephrata senior Cody Black (24) attempts a three-pointer in the third quarter against Selah.
  

    Ephrata sophomore Cooper Black (30) dribbles the ball toward the rim against Selah.
  

    Ephrata senior Addison Mills (30) attempts a shot in the second half against Selah Friday night.