East Battles Port Angeles

Tonight for State Berth

By JOHN K. SMITH

Sun Sports Writer

East Knights and Port Angeles Roughriders battle tonight for a state class AA high school basketball tournament berth.

They earned the championship chance by capturing big victories on narrow margins in Olympic peninsula playoff action last night. East defeated the Bethel Braves, 44-42, in Bremerton, and Port Angles outlasted the West Wildcats in a double-overtime upset, 63-62, at Silverdale.

Tip off between East and PA will be at 8 o’clock tonight in the Central Kitsap gym at Silverdale. Winner will open state tourney play Wednesday at Seattle. Loser will be through for the season, just like last night’s two beaten quintets.

East will be playing without reserve forward Bob Richardson. The 6-foot, 1-inch junior suffered an elbow dislocation in a fall during the second quarter last night.

TWO FREE THROWS by forward Jim Tienhaara proved the margin of victory for the Knights, who had led all the way until Bethel tied it with two minutes remaining in the game. Brave Rocky Crate countered with what would have been the tying basket but had a foot on the boundary line and the goal didn’t count.

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IN THE WEST encounter at Silverdale, Roughrider reserve guard Sheldon Orsborn drove unopposed through the Wildcat key to lay in the first two points in the second overtime, and Port Angeles hung on to the deciding whistle.

With 26 seconds left, the northern quintet lead by six. Wildcats Leon Leslie and Ron Burley cut that quickly back to two, but it was too late to get the equalizer.

Port Angeles took the lead for the first time in the game on a long jump shot by backcourt hero Dave Denny as the clock ticked to just two minutes and 20 seconds from the end of regulation play.

The initial PA advantage came at 53-52 and only a free throw by Wildcat forward Les Dicks kept it from being the final score. If Dicks had made good the first of his two tries, however, West would have won, 54-53.

As it turned out, the ‘Riders and the ‘Cats clawed through six extra minutes before the verdict. Each tallied two points in the first three-minute overtime, West on a field goal by J.D. Tamerius and PA on a left-handed rolling hook-type thing thrown on the dead run by Blaine Pearman.

In the second overtime, Orsborn caught the Wildcats napping and a series of free throws kept the ‘Cats from catching up again despite the heroics of Burley.

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Burley didn’t get into the game until West trailed, 55-60, with 1:23 to go in the second overtime. The junior guard promptly scored one basket, stole the inbounds pass and tried again. That shot failed, but he delivered his second two-pointer in three tries just before the end and batted the ball out of bounds in a good try at stealing the final inbounds pass with two seconds on the clock.

DENNY AND DICKS shared game individual honors with 15 each. Denny got 11-points backing from both Pearman and Dan Peacock, while Bob Peterson, usually low-scoring but strong rebounding center, added 10. Steve Schumacher had 12 and Dan Shedwin 10 for West.

Either West or PA could have sewn up the decision much earlier at the free throw line where the Wildcats managed only 13 of 24 and the ‘Riders netted just 19 of 31.

West actually made two more field goals than PA but let the gift tosses swing the pendulum the other way.

INJURED KNIGHT - East high coach Les Eathorne assists Bob Richardson to his feet after the youth had suffered an elbow dislocation in a fall. Richardson spent the night in the hospital.