Cheney's Jaylen Worthem goes up for a shot against East Valley's Eli Holecek in the second half of the Blackhawks loss to the visiting Knights.
A pair of losses last week has pretty much sealed the Cheney High boys basketball team's playoff seeding.
The Blackhawks fell Tuesday at West Valley 56-44 and Saturday at home against East Valley 56-48. The losses drop Cheney's Great Northern League mark to 1-9, 8-10 overall; leaving the Blackhawks three games behind fourth-place West Valley with two games remaining.
Saturday's loss to the third-place Knights was likely one that got away for Cheney. The Blackhawks took a 17-10 first quarter lead, and after East Valley rallied to tie the game at 23 with 3 minutes, 45 seconds to play in the second, regained the lead, going into the locker room at the half up 31-28.
A back and forth third quarter culminated in Devin Cook's buzzer-beater 3-pointer that pulled Cheney within three at 42-39. Justace Reiter put the Blackhawks up early in the fourth, hitting a 3 and subsequent foul shot for a 43-42 lead.
Cameron Hardt's free throws put Cheney up 45-42 with 6:12 remaining, but it was their last lead.
East Valley's Treyshaun Bracey put the Knights on top, 46-45, with a pair of free throws at the 5:17 mark. Drake Johnson hit one of two foul shots to tie the game at 46, but Bracey's basket at the 4 minute mark gave East Valley the lead for good at 48-46, sealing their win at the line down the stretch.
Reiter led Cheney in scoring with 12 points, with Hardt adding 11. Head coach Gregg Smith had praise for his team's performance.
"It was good to see after our Tuesday performance that we were willing to fight," he said.
Smith said the Blackhawks moved the ball well in the first half, helping them shoot just over 46 percent from the field. In the second half, that movement slowed, resulting in missed shots and a 20.08 shooting percentage.
Cheney's difficulty Tuesday at West Valley boiled down to what Smith felt was a lack of intensity. The Blackhawks came out flat, possibly fallout from their games the previous weekend against Clarkston and Pullman, getting outscored 42-24 through the first three quarters before attempting to rally in the fourth to make the final score a bit closer.
Jaylen Worthem led Cheney with 10 points.
Cheney wraps up its regular season against the GNL's top-two teams. The Blackhawks travel to second-place Pullman (5-4, 12-5), ranked sixth in state 2A, Tuesday, and finishes up Friday against top-ranked, two-time defending league and state champion Clarkston (10-0, 16-2) Friday.
Smith is still optimistic for a strong finish, and believes the results the past couple of weeks are just part of the changes he and his coaches are trying to make in the program. "We're getting there," he said. "Just not quite quick enough."
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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