Brewster Bears take second in state basketball championships

SPOKANE -- The defending state champion Brewster Bears varsity basketball team ended a dramatic and thrilling run for a second consecutive title to finish second to Liberty Spangle 63-53, in the Spokane Arena last Saturday, March 6.
“We had a rough loss tonight vs a good Liberty team,” said head coach Michael Taylor. “ We knew their personnel from playing them earlier this season, as well as watching them the last few days, but their guys stepped up and made a bunch of good plays in the second half.”
A drive that began with a 59-51 regional win against Morton-White Pass, a come-from-behind Elite Eight win over Toutle Lake, 67-65, and a last second, 56-53 Final Four win over No. 1 Kalama, ended with a 64-55 loss to the Lancers.
Brewster took a 15-11 lead at the end of the first quarter and extended it to 10 points, 27-17, by halftime. At that point it looked like the Bears were in control of the game with both the lead and leading scorer Kelson Gebbers back in the lineup following an ankle injury suffered against Toutle Lake.
In their previous three playoff games the Bears either tied or trailing their opponents and rallied in the second half to pull out wins. Brewster beat Morton-White Pass by eight on the heels of a 27-27 halftime tie.
Against Toutle Lake the Ducks capitalized on the loss of Gebbers in the opening minute of play to build up a 17-point halftime lead but the Bears battled back to win that one in the final seconds.
Again, against Kalama the game was knotted both at halftime and at the end of the third quarter before Brewster got the upper hand.
Liberty benefitted from the halftime surge to score 14 points against Brewster’s four in the third quarter. With a two-point lead and the clock winding down the Lancers put the game out of reach from the foul line.
Kelson Gebbers led the Bears with 23 points and Adaih Najera added 14. AAJ Woodward led the rebounding with 10.
“We were a little stagnant on offense and passive, which resulted in turnovers and poor possessions,” said Taylor. “Thinking back, as usual, I could have done some things differently, played zone, trapped their best guys to make them passers, subbed a little differently, but that’s always the case when you lose big games. I thought our kids played hard and had a great week of games.”
It was the final game for seniors AJ Woodward, Adaih Najera, and Zane Madden. The Bears have won the state championship nine times, six as a 1A team and three as a 2B.
“I think there were many key points in our week of four state games, but most of all I think these showed our kids have great character and they were in it together,” said Taylor. “ We may not have finished how we wanted, but we have ourselves an opportunity and that is what we talked about regularly this season. Everyday is an opportunity for us to be a goof people, to build our character and to be there for one another.”
Bears stats
K. Gebbers 23 points
A. Najera 14
A. Woodward 7
T. Schertenleib 5
B. Wulf 4
C. Gebbers 2
Z. Madden
R. Vassar