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Sports

Pritchard Leads Warriors into 2A Championship Game

Clover Park's 73-70 overtime win against Burlington-Edison sends team to title match for first time in school history.

The Clover Park Warriors have completed two of three steps in Yakima.

Step one: Win the quarterfinals against River Ridge. Done.

Step two: Win the semifinals against Burlington-Edison. Done.

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All that is left is to win the Class 2A state championship against two-time defending state champion Squalicum – the team that kept the Warriors from the No. 1 seed into the tournament last weekend. The Storm edged the Buccaneers 49-45 in their semifinal game.

The championship game begins at 9 p.m. (on Saturday) at the SunDome.

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But Clover Park head coach Mel Ninnis said that he is not worried about the outcome. This team is guaranteed the highest finish in school history – the 1998 team placed seventh in the 3A tournament – but more importantly, he said, this group has confidence.

“We feel confident and courageous,” Ninnis said after the Warriors knocked off Burlington-Edison in a 73-70 overtime win on Friday evening. “We’re the favorites and we’re going to play like the favorites.”

Ninnis said that against the Tigers, “We might have been tied with 10 seconds left and they take a timeout and the kids are looking at me, stressed, and I just smile at them.

“I know they’re going to do what needs to get done to win. I have total confidence in them.”

Ninnis admitted that he felt relieved to be on the positive end of the win.

“We were in command of the whole game until the end, and they went ahead by one, and we got it into overtime,” he said.

The Warriors were led by senior forward Tana Pritchard, who scored a game-high 26 points and had eight rebounds. Pritchard, who will see plenty of Eastern Washington the next four years as he plays football at Washington State, started the evening with two splashy dunks.

But by the end of regulation, he had committed four fouls and was in danger of leaving the game.

“His man was really going after him, and luckily he’s so smart and a team player,” Ninnis said. “He let his man score a few times in a row because he couldn’t really physically defend the guy because I needed him in there.”

Ninnis wanted to have won by a larger margin, but that they had some free-throw issues. Still, Clover Park shot close 50 percent for the game and converted 31 of 63 field goals.  

Freshman guard Ahmaad Rorie finished with 21 points, and four of them were 3-pointers. Senior forward Marcus Sheppard racked up a team-high 13 rebounds. Both made free throws in overtime, along with sophomore forward Isom Brown.

 “We’re just blessed,” Ninnis said. “And it’s the kids.”

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