Grizzlies Punch Their Ticket To State

Even with their district championship win early last week the Grace Grizzlies had yet to qualify for the state tournament.  The High Desert Conference that consists of Grace, Butte County, and Alturas are only allotted a half seed in the state tournament.  That meant that Grace would play the third place team out of the Snake River Conference.  The Snake River Conference district tournament took most of last week to wrap up.  When it all shook out Grace found that they would face Oakley in a play-in game for the right to go to state.  The two teams are familiar with each other.  The Grizzlies and the Hornets have played each other several times in recent years including once earlier this season in Grace.  That meeting took place on Grace’s senior night and the Grizzlies easily took down the Hornets sending the game to a running clock.  The play-in game was a different story.

The play-in game took place on a neutral court at American Falls on Saturday afternoon.  It is always a concern that following a blowout win over a team that the winning team will enter the next match up over confident and look past the opponent that they have already beaten with ease.  I don't know if that was the case here but one thing that was for certain was Oakley came out playing like a team with nothing to lose.  The Hornets out hustled and out played the Grizzlies in the first quarter of play.  Oakley looked confident and was not intimidated by the Grizzlies.  Grace took the best shot from the Hornets but began to claw their way back.  By the end of the quarter Grace still trailed but had got back to within eight points.  The second quarter was a battle.  The Grizzlies continued to whittle away at the Hornet lead but by the halftime break Grace had not yet evened the game up and they still trailed by three points.  The Grizzlies entered the second half on a mission.  Grace settled down and into their game.  The Grizzlies turned up the defense holding the Hornets to just three third quarter points.  Meanwhile Grace was able to find a spark on offense tallying seventeen points of their own.  Grace now held a double digit lead going into the final period.  The final quarter was not the cleanest of the game with several fouls being called and both teams struggling to score.  In the end the Grizzlies held their lead eventually winning the game by twelve points.

The win secured a spot in the state tournament for the Grizzlies.  As a reward for making it to state the Grizzlies will face off with the number two team in the state the Valley Vikings.  Valley has gone the full season undefeated.  The Vikings have won their games by an incredible average of thirty three points.  Though that sounds impressive and it is, they have also held reign over arguably one of the weakest districts in the state.  Conversely Grace still does not have a winning record.  That being said, Grace has only played a handful of games at full strength and has had a much more challenging schedule playing several 3A and a couple of 4A schools this season.  The Vikings will remain to be the favorites in the round one match up but I think Grace is the most dangerous seven seed in any classification in the state.  This first game will be very entertaining for fans and I predict a close finish.  That game takes place at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday at Vallivue High School.

Grizzlies 11 13 17 8 49

Hornets 19 8 3 7 37

D.Hill 5, B.Kimball 8, L.VanGass 10, C.Smith 6, P.Yost 12, L.Moss 8