East Nips Irish In 2 OT Shootout

SEATTLE – For the fans that could get into the small Holy Rosary gym Tuesday night, the basketball action between East High School and O’Dea was well worth the discomfort.

     “It was a helluva basketball game. It was a donnybrook, a shoutout at OK corral . . . just a fantastic game to watch,” commented East Coach Les Eathorne on the Olympic League matchup of double-A powers.

     When the smoke had cleared after 32 minutes of fast and furious action, East had nailed down the inside track for the league’s top double-A berth to the West-Central District Tournament with a harrowing 87-85 victory over the Irish . . . after two overtime periods.

     It was almost expected the contest would turn into a shoutout between East’s talented 6-foot-5 center Rick Walker and O’Dea’ 6-3 Clint Richardson . . . and that’s precisely what happened.

     Walker and Richardson broke their respective school scoring records with some shooting that left the packed crowd of 450 drained of emotion. Walker hit 17 of 25 shots from the field and eight from the foul line – including some crucial gift shots in overtime – for 42 points. That broke his previous school record of 40 set against O’Dea in late December.

     Richardson, meanwhile, hit on 20 of 31 shots from the floor – although he sat out five minutes in the fourth quarter – and added one from the foul line for 41 points. That broke his school record of 37 set last season.

     “Richardson played a phenomenal game and Walker was equally as great,” said Eathorne.

     It was Walker and forward Henri Campbell who finally put the game out of reach in the second overtime. Walker dumped in two free throws to give East an 85-83 lead with only seconds left.

    O’Dea turned the ball over when East guard Mark Eathorne deflected a pass and Campbell picked it up. Campbell drove for the basket, but was fouled with six seconds showing on the clock. He calmly sank both gifters and East had an 87-83 lead.

[ top ]

     A shot by Tom Garrick as the buzzer sounded ending the game gave O’Dea its final points.

     “It was just a sensational high school ball game . . . unbelievably tense all the way,” added Eathorne.

     O’Dea outshot East from the field 39-32, hitting 57 per cent of its shots. However, East won the game by outscoring the Irish 23-7 on the foul line.

     Two free throws by Walker near the end of the first overtime tied the game at 77. Richardson had hit a jumper with 37 seconds left in regulation time to send the game into the first overtime.

     Eathorne attributed the victory to two things.

     “The thing that lost it for O”Dea was that they missed the fouls hots at the end and we did not. We fouled two of their reserves near the end and they missed one-and-ones.”

     “And the facility was unbelievable . . . I thing it is smaller than Sheridan Park gym. So I told the boys no lead passes off the backboard . . . and that decision helped us.”

     Besides Walker, Campbell scored 18 points and Bryan Garinger 16. Walker also collected 17 rebounds, Campbell 14 and Garinger 13 as East outboarded O’Dea, 49-39.

     Pat McKee, O’Dea’s 6-10 center scored 12 points and Dennis Cook added 11 to go with Richardson’s 41.

*  *  *