By NEIL PIERSON
Staff Reporter
Some games are so good that normally concise sportswriters turn into Leo Tolstoy because they can't leave anything out.
Fortunately for you loyal readers, the tight deadlines and space constraints of the newspaper business prohibit even the most long-winded writer from churning out the “War and Peace” of football stories or the “Anna Karenina” of basketball stories.
But there are instances when time and space conspire to truly hinder a story.
A great example was last Tuesday's Great Northern League boys basketball playoff game between Medical Lake and Deer Park, which made its way onto my list of the top five high school basketball games I've ever seen.
The Free Press doesn't usually publish the results of Tuesday night games until the following week—because of deadlines—but we often make exceptions come playoff time.
An exception was made last week, because we knew our readers wouldn't want to wait nine days to read about Medical Lake's game at Central Valley, or the Cheney boys game at Clarkston.
I allotted about 350 words for the ML-DP recap, but as is often the case with a loser-out playoff game, it turned out to be such a hard-fought battle that 350 words couldn't come close to capturing the excitement.
Even at a neutral court with a couple hundred fans in attendance, the tension and desperation for both teams' coaches and players was palpable.
Things didn't look so good for the Cardinals when they trailed 43-33 early in the fourth quarter.
That quickly changed behind sharpshooters David Ramacus and Ray Erwin, who both came up with efforts a team has to have from its star players in the playoffs.
Ramacus buried four 3-pointers in the final quarter and gave the Cards their first lead of the half with 96 seconds to play.
You can't talk about this victory, however, without mentioning ML senior forwards Nathan Jones and Alex Dobbins.
Neither guy has received much credit this year, but they each came up with clutch plays in ML's final possession of regulation—Jones with a rebound that saved the game, and Dobbins with a similar rebound and free throw to knot the score at 51.
The overtime session remained tense, as evidenced by the numerous free throws missed by both teams.
Eventually, the Cards hit just enough of those charity shots to eke out the win.
Good thing, too—head coach Arnold Brown was on top of his game that night, yelling encouragement and cajoling officials. It was easy to see how badly he wanted this game, and it would've been a shame had all that sweat pouring off his head gone for naught.
In the spirit of March Madness, here are the other four games on my top five list, in no particular order:
Medical Lake girls vs. Colfax, 2005: A monumental game for the Lady Cards' program, in which they beat a Bulldogs' squad that went on to win its third straight 1A state title.
In a game that wasn't decided until the final possession, ML helped itself by hitting 10 straight free throws in the fourth quarter.
Huge performances from ML's Richelle Daily, Lyra Reese, Ali Nelson and Colleen Constantine in the 54-50 victory.
Medical Lake boys vs. East Valley-Yakima, 2004: A state semifinal game that features five ties and eight lead changes shouldn't be decided with a controversial foul, but this one was. ML's Dur Till hit a 3-pointer with 21 seconds left to give his team a one-point lead, but as the teams scrummed for a loose ball moments later, Till was nailed for his fifth foul.
EV's Tyler Price hit the winning free throws, negating great efforts from Till (nine points, seven assists, four steals) and Steven Wesley (19 points).
Chewelah girls vs. King's, 2005: No reason I should've seen this state championship game, other than the fact it happened to be right before ML's boys took the floor for their title game.
Chewelah was a heavy underdog to the Knights, who were led by Washington recruit and 2A Player of the Year Sara Mosiman.
As fate would have it, Mosiman spent most of the night on the bench saddled with foul trouble, and the Cougars—led by New Mexico recruit Nikki Nelson and a scrappy supporting cast—took the game right to the wire before losing, 59-55.
Medical Lake boys vs. Quincy, 2005: Not much needs to be said about this one, which goes down as the greatest moment in ML basketball history.
Trailing by 16 points in the third quarter, the Cards used a 19-0 run to grab the lead. Little-used reserve Andy Davis was the key to the comeback, scoring nine points in the fourth quarter of the 44-41 win.
Neil Pierson can be reached at npierson@cheneyfreepress.com
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