Adie Wright comes off bench to spark NC boys over West Valley; Eagles girls run away from Wolfpack | GSL basketball

With the recent announcement that starting next year North Central will be play a full 2A schedule including playoffs, this is the last season that the Wolfpack will be required to glue-in with the 3As for the district playoffs.

The rest of the Greater Spokane League 2A teams can breathe a little easier this year, but they will have to contend with another team to reach the postseason the next.

As it is, NC can’t “win” the GSL 2A this season – even if it has the best record in the league.

“All that doesn’t matter,” NC coach Rob Sacre said. “We’re just focused on one game at a time. We’ll focus on next and whatever the future gives us we’ll take care of it.”

Friday night, they took care of West Valley 71-58.

Senior Adie Wright scored a season-high 19 points, all in the second half, and the Wolfpack (13-5, 8-1) beat the visiting Eagles (12-5, 7-2) in a GSL 2A game. Both teams have three regular season games to play.

Isaac Williams added 18 points for NC and Miles Spencer had 16.

West Valley was led by Nathan Zettle with 17 – all but three in the first half.

NC outscored WV 43-16 in the second half. They swept the season series with the Eagles, taking the first game 69-58 at West Valley on Jan. 6.

“The difference was we just wanted to create more deflections, get in the passing lanes,” Sacre said. “Everything depends on our defense. When our defense is locked in, we’re gonna win games.”

“We were trailing and we wanted to get fired up,” Wright said of his 13-point outburst in the third quarter. “We talked about it in the locker room. We just needed to come out with more firepower in the second half cause we were a little lax in the first half.”

With a winning league record, North Central will have to play a league and then a district play-in game to reach the postseason. But with three more regular season league games to play, they aren’t focusing on that.

“We’re in good shape,” Wright said. “We’re coming together at the right time, and I think it’s showing on the court.”

West Valley led 18-14 after one, bit Williams’ 3-pointer early in the second drew NC within one at 21-20. Zettle drained a long 3 to complete a 9-0 run and push the lead to double digits with 3 minutes, 6 seconds left in the half.

Williams hit a pair of 3s as part of an 8-2 run to end the half and NC trailed 32-28 at intermission.

Wright scored NC’s first eight points of the second half and his 3-pointer with 3:50 left tied it at 36-36. Wright put down a two-handed slam to convert a fast break, then added a corner 3 and the Wolfpack led 50-44 entering the fourth.

West Valley opened the fourth with a 9-1 run to go up 53-51, but the Wolfpack responded with a 9-1 run of their own. Miles Spencer’s fade-away baseline jumper with three minutes left put NC up by six.

West Valley didn’t have a late run and NC held on for the win.

Wright averaged 11.2 points per game last year as a starter but entered play at 5.7 per and a season-high of 11 this season.

“I’ve been a fan of Adie since the beginning, and I have faith in him. We just gotta make sure he’s got everything dialed in,” Sacre said. “He just needs to stay disciplined on defense and he can play more. It’s as simple as that. He’s got it.”

Girls

West Valley 62, North Central 35: Senior Cassie Brooks finished three off her career high with 21 points and the Eagles (11-5, 5-4) topped the Wolfpack (6-12, 4-5) in the early game.

Avery Spunich had 11 points for West Valley and Gabi Glass added 10.

West Valley scored the first 16 points of the game, a streak halted with 2:20 left in the first on a basket by NC’s Milani Tonasket, en route to a 16-7 lead after one. Brooks scored 15 points in the second quarter and West Valley led 42-13 at the break.

Arkayla Brown led North Central with 16 points.