Mt. Spokane limited to 29% shooting, Eastside Catholic pulls away 53-37 in quarterfinal | State 3A boys

Mt. Spokane’s 6-foot-9 post Jaden Ghoreishi, the 2025 Greater Spokane League MVP, missed the entire league season for the Wildcats dealing with blood clots in his lungs. His health assured, he made his return on Saturday, pacing Mt. Spokane with 15 points and nine rebounds in a 59-53 regional round win over Prairie.

As it was in the regional game, Ghoreishi didn’t start on Thursday. But unlike Saturday, the spark wasn’t quite there – but neither was it there for his teammates either.

Mt. Spokane was limited to 29% shooting, and the third-seeded Wildcats (18-7) lost to fourth-seeded Eastside Catholic (19-8) 53-37 in a State 3A quarterfinal Thursday at the Tacoma Dome .

The Crusaders advanced to a semifinal against seventh-seeded Lincoln at 5:30 on Friday. Mt. Spokane fell into the fourth-place bracket against eighth-seeded Bellevue at 10:30 a.m.

The Wildcats did good job against EC’s 6-foot-11 post Yabi Aklog, who went for 32 points and 16 rebounds in Wednesday’s Round-of-12 79-70 win over 12th-seeded Liberty (Renton) but finished with seven points and nine boards on Thursday. The Crusaders were led by backup guard London Walsh with 14 points and 6-4 freshman Anthony Williams with 13 – all in the first half.

“That was the game plan, and we were able to go at (Aklog) a little bit,” Mt. Spokane coach David Wagenblast said. “He got in foul trouble, but we did a great job defensively on taking away the kid with 32 yesterday. But that’s why they’re a really, really good team because they’ve got a lot of great parts.”

Ghoreishi and sophomore Tysen Lewis scored 10 points apiece for Mt. Spokane. Lewis also had nine rebounds. The Wildcats were 3 of 11 from beyond the arc.

“I’m just so proud of how hard we played. It’s just that, you know, you get down a little bit when you’re missing lay ins,” Wagenblast said. “And it wasn’t like our kids – it wasn’t like it was too big a moment for us. We just we missed some lay ins that we normally make, and then you get a little bit more energy.

“That kind of stuff just kind of snowballed on us a little bit, and we kind of lost our identity a little bit in terms of having some swagger to go finish plays during the second half.”

Ghoreishi entered at 5:04 with it tied at 4. He hit a 3 from the top of the key to put Mt. Spokane up 8-6. Neither team made a run and it was tied at 10 after one quarter.

Eastside Catholic used a 6-0 run – with Aklog on the bench with two fouls – to go up 19-15 with three minutes left in the second. The Crusaders finished the quarter on a 15-2 run, the Wildcats had just eight in the period and Eastside Catholic led 28-18 at the half.

Aklog sat the rest of the quarter, but Mt. Spokane couldn’t take advantage.

“Not only that, but they actually extended the lead without him,” Wagenblast said. “We were hoping that we could go, ‘OK, look, the big kid’s out and let’s attack the basket.’ And it just, you know, didn’t go that way.”

Neither team scored in the first 21/2 minutes of the third quarter. Tytan McNeal hit a 3 from the top of the key to give EC their biggest lead of the game to that point at 33-19.

Wagenblast called timeout, but the Crusaders came out of it with a 6-0 run to give them a 20-point lead. Mt. Spokane had just two baskets in the period and trailed 45-24 entering the fourth.

Mason Dietzen hit a 3, Rock Franklin drove for a bucket and Lewis hit a baby hook to make it a 15-point game with five minutes left. But EC’s Steven Sun hit a floater to end the run, Aklog added a two-handed jam and the Crusaders coasted to the win.

“They’re a very tough, tough team to match up with,” Wagenblast said. “They’re so physical, and they do such a great job rebounding and putting pressure on the ball.”