POMEROY––A late fourth-quarter run put Pomeroy in front briefly, but Yakama Nation Tribal's top scorer Justice Hart swished a three to give the Eagles the lead, and the Pirates were unable to get it back, bowing out of the District Tournament with the close 52-45 home-court loss. In their first District game, the Pirates fell to Sunnyside Christian 60-40 on the Knights' home court Feb. 10, and the Pirates beat Colton 64-28 in the final regular-season game Feb. 7.

"We lost a tough one," commented Head Coach Chris Wolf following the Saturday loss. "We played really tough defensively tonight, but struggled to score. This was a fun group to coach...a group that worked hard all season and made huge improvements."

Trent Gwinn got the task of keeping a hand in the face of Yakama Nation's top scorer, Justice Hart. "Gwinn did an amazing job of holding Hart to 20 points," Wolf said.

Gwinn reached another milestone in the Sunnyside Christian game, scoring his 1,000th career point with his last basket, Wolf said. "This is an amazing accomplishment considering we only played eight games last year and he missed four games this year with a broken wrist," he said.

The four points the Eagles scored in the first quarter, plus the trey Hart made in the fourth quarter were the difference in a tight defensive battle. Both teams jousted to a draw in the middle quarters, 13-13 in the second; 12 all in the third.

"They maintained about a four-point lead throughout the first three quarters, and we were able to come back in the fourth and take the lead 43-41 on a three-pointer by Trevin Kimble," Wolf said.

Yakama's leading scorer, Justice Hart found the range for three to take the lead, in spite of aggressive defense by Gwinn the entire game. "Trent fought through screens and made every shot tough for him tonight," Wolf said.

The Eagles had a slightly finer edge that night, flying away with the win. "We had some really good looks that just didn't go in for us," Wolf said. "Trent Gwinn led the way with 19 points, and Trevin Kimble added 15."

Low free throw shooting and turnovers worked against Pomeroy in the 60-46 District first-round loss at Sunnyside last Thursday. "We only shot 5 of 20 from the free throw line and had 23 turnovers," Wolf said. "When we got shots, we were successful, shooting 17 of 36 from the field and 7 of 12 on threes. We just didn't get enough shots up tonight."

"We defended well enough in the half court to win, but the turnovers led to too many transition points against us," Wolf said.

Gwinn was the game's leading scorer with 23.

The Knights scored consistently through all four quarters while the Pirates faltered in the second and fourth periods.

Gwinn and Kimble provided the one-two punch in the 64-28 win over Colton Feb. 7. Gwinn scored 26 and had several steals, and Kimble drained three treys to score 23. Trace Roberts dished six assists, Wolf said, including some exceptional passes to Gwinn on the baseline.

"We shared the ball and got good looks for everyone tonight," Wolf said. "Defensively we played our best game in quite some time holding Colton to 10 first half points."

Yakama Nation Tribal 52, Pomeroy 45 (2/12)

Pom 8 13 12 12-45

YNT 12 13 12 15-52

Pomeroy (45) Fruh 1 2-2 4, Gwinn 8 2-2 19, Kimble 6 2-3 15, Severs 3 1-1 7. Totals 18 7-8 45

YNT (52) Strom-Torres 4 0-0 9, Lewis 1 0-0 3, Rigdon 1 0-0 2, Hart 6 4-4 20, Jonas Scabbyrobe 1 0-0 2, Arbuckle 6 4-6 16, Totals 19 8-10 52

3-point goals-YNT Strom-Torres, Hart 4. Pomeroy-Gwinn, Kimble

Sunnyside Christian 60, Pomeroy 46 (2/10)

Pom 20 5 12 9-46

SSC 14 15 19 12-60

Pomeroy (46) Fruh 1 0-2 3, Gwinn 8 3-9 23, Slusser 1 0-0 3, Kimble 4 2-6 11, Magill 1 0-0 2, Severs 1 0-2 2, Roberts 1 0-1 2. Totals 17 5-20 46.

Sunnyside Christian (60) VanWieringen 8 0-0 18, Jech 5 0-0 14, Bosma 0 2-6 2, Smeenk 2 0-0 4, Roedel 1 1-2 3, Wagenaar 8 3-4 19. Totals 24 6-12 60.

3-point goals-Pomeroy Fruh, Gwinn 4, Slusser, Kimble. Sunnyside Christian-VanWieringen 2, Jech 4.

Pomeroy 64, Colton 28 (2/7)

Pom 17 19 11 17-64

Col 6 4 9 9-28

Colton (28) Arnhold 6 0-0 13, A. Jordan 3 0-0 6, Wolf 0 0-0 0, Baerlocher 0 0-0 0, Moehrle 0 0-0 0, Peters 0 0-0 0, W. Jordan 3 2-2 9, McCann 0 0-0 0, Totals 12 2-2 28.  

Pomeroy (64) Fruh 0 0-0 0, Gwinn 12 1-3 26, Bott 1 1-2 4, Jett Slusser 1 0-0 3, Kimble 9 2-2 23, Magill 2 0-0 5, Schmidt 0 0-0 0, Severs 0 0-0 0, Jayden Slusser 0 0-0 0, Roberts 0 2-2 2, Reisinger 0 1-2 1, Vecchio 0 0-2 0, Totals 25 7-13 64

3-point goals-Colton Arnhold, W. Jordan, Pomeroy-Gwinn, Bott, Jett Slusser, Kimble 3, Magill.