LONGVIEW — Inside 3 minutes to go Tuesday night following Nate Snook’s steal and lay-in that made Columbia River’s lead the largest of the game at that point, it took another 4 seconds for the bench to go wild in what turned out to be a 16-point district-semifinal victory over W.F. West.
That was when Caden Dezort forced a turnover off the Chieftains’ press, leading to the bench’s eruption. Two possessions later, Jacob Hjort’s hit the team’s 10th 3-pointer of the night.
It all led to a 61-45 win at Mark Morris High School that all but secured the Chieftains (19-3) into the Class 2A state tournament at the Yakima Valley SunDome because of its top-8 RPI ranking.
River advances to Friday’s all-Greater St. Helens League district title game against Mark Morris at 8 p.m. at Saint Martin’s University in Lacey. That will be the third go-around for both teams; they split their regular-season meetings.
Last month, coach David Long scouted the Bearcats against 2A GSHL rival Mark Morris, a game in which the Bearcats won on a neutral floor, 61-46, at the third annual MLK Tribute at Lower Columbia College.
And that has Snook more than pumped for a game to not only crown hopefully dethrone the reigning district champions.
“We’re going to go into Friday thinking we have a pretty good chance of bringing home that district title,” said Snook, whose 15 points are a career high for the sophomore.
Hjort led all scorers with a game-high 21 points, one of three River players to reach double figures.
After escaping in its first-round district win over Black Hills, shooting an abysmal 14 percent from the outside — “I don’t even know how we won that game,” Snook said — River hit seven first-half threes to build a 29-19 halftime lead. Three came on its opening three possessions, too.
While River started hot, W.F. West (19-3) made just one but its struggles came at the free-throw line. It started 0-for-7 before converting its first; they finished 4 of 13 and the 45 points were the third-lowest of the season.
Only Bailey Cooper finished in double figures for the Bearcats with 13 points. River held 6-foot-8 starting center Brandon White in check with five and Jordan Thomas under his season average with eight.
For Snook, he’s embracing his role as a back-up point guard after starting the first six games. He called Tuesday his best game, shooting 2 of 4 from 3-point range and hitting 5 of 6 free throws. It’s the second time in four games he’s scored in double figures.
“You kind of get a feel for the game when you come off the bench,” he said. “Not trying to do too much.”
Tumwater 43, Ridgefield 39 — CJ Geathers, the 2A Evergreen Conference MVP, scored eight straight points for the Thunderbirds to eliminate the Spudders from the 2A Southwest District IV tournament. The loss ends Ridgefield’s season at 12-11.
Geathers, who averaged 23.2 points entering the tournament, was held to three first-half points by Ridgefield, which led 18-16 at halftime. He scored his first points since early in the first quarter as part of an 8-0 run for Tumwater that gave Tumwater its largest lead at 40-29.
Ridgefield, behind Kellen Bringhurst’s 14 points, went on a 8-0 run over the final 1:42 to pull within 42-39.
Matt Gama added nine points for the Spudders and Kaden Ramey had all eight points as part of a second-quarter scoring spurt that gave the Spudders its halftime lead.
