The Sunday Morning Blast

These Days – Scores from around The Blast Zone; plus Naselle vs Boistfort basketball (1969), and Castle Rock vs Steilacoom (1995)

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High School Boys Basketball

Players on the R.A. Long bench celebrate following another made basket in the second half of a 49-38 win over Grandview in the Regional round of the state tournament, Saturday, Feb. 28, at Kelso High School. / Photo by Candy Durgeloh for Blast Zone Media

State / Regional Round

• R.A. Long 49, Grandview 38

• Tri-Cities Prep 64, Toledo 63

• Burbank (Columbia) 68, Ilwaco 54

• Lummi Nation 78, Wahkiakum 49

High School Girls Basketball

Players on the Mark Morris bench celebrate following another made basket during the first half of a 68-42 win over Kingston in the Regional round of the 2A State Tournament, Saturday, Feb. 28, at Kelso High School. The Monarchs will be back in action next week at the Yakima SunDome. / Photo by Benjamin Hendrickson for Blast Zone Media

State / Regional Round

• Mark Morris 68, Kingston 42

• Brewster 49, Toutle Lake 46

• Pomeroy 56, Naselle 53 (OT)

College Baseball

LCC’s Jackson Noon patrols left field during a game against Wenatchee Valley Saturday, Feb. 28, at David Story Field. The Red Devils split the day and will be back in action for another doubleheader on Sunday. / Photo courtesy of LCC Baseball

• Lower Columbia 2, Wenatchee Valley 0

• Lower Columbia 10, Wenatchee Valley 0

College Softball

LCC’s Ava Eib winds up for a warm up itch in between innings during a game against Everett, Saturday, Feb. 28, at Tam O’Shanter Park. The Red Devils split the day, and will be back in action at home on Sunday. / Photo courtesy of Sam Barbee

• Everett 4, Lower Columbia 3

• Lower Columbia 5, Everett 0

This Day In History

• Mar. 1, 1995: Castle Rock’s 6-foot, 4-inch center Josh Auckland drills a 40-foot heave at the buzzer to give the Rockets an improbable 49-48 win over Steilacoom in the first round of the 1A state tournament in Tacoma. Castle Rock trailed by four points late before Bob Lowe drilled a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left to cut the deficit to 47-46. After the Rockets intentionally fouled, Steilacoom made one of two free throws to push its lead to two. CR ran its inbounds play to get the ball into the hands of Chad Mitchell, its leading scorer, but Steilacoom quickly triple-teamed him, leaving Auckland open at half-court.
  “They loaded up on Mitchell, and Josh was out there free. It was his first 3-pointer of the year. Believe me, that was not what [the play] looked like on the diagram,” CR coach Monte Cummings said.
  The ending of their first-round matchup set the stage for the rest of the Rockets’ run to a seventh-place finish. Castle Rock lost to Medical Lake in the quarterfinals on a buzzer-beater in overtime, but stayed alive by beating Blaine in a loser-out game the next day when Neal Kandoll beat the final horn for a one-point win.

That Day In History

• Feb. 28, 1969: The Naselle boys basketball team rolls early, never looks back, and then explodes for 31 points in the fourth quarter for good measure to rout Boistfort 75-52 in the District B championship. Dale Tienhaara led the Comets with 20 points, while Marshall Cox, Wayne Hall, and Scott Grabenhorst all added 12.
  The district title was the second in a row for Lyle Patterson’s Comets, who went on to make it a three-peat in 1970 and win eight of 11 championships between 1968-78. The matchup was the first — and only — district championship game appearance for Boistfort High School, which closed its doors ahead of the 1977-78 school year.

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