The Pullman Greyhounds played their closest game of the year.

Solid contributions off of the bench and the team eventually cracking the West Valley defensive code helped the Greyhounds win the Greater Spokane League 2A Championship 64–53.

The Pullman Greyhounds’ (22-0, 12-0 2A/3A/4A Greater Spokane League) 11-point championship victory was anything but easy as the West Valley HS Eagles (19-4, 9-3 2A/3A/4A GSL) had enough answers for the Greyhound attack to keep it a one-possession game after three-quarters of play.

Fifteen seconds after the Greyhounds won the tip, senior Jaedyn Brown wrapped his way around the right side of the floor for the opening dunk. Pullman took a swift 2–0 lead but the game would not be as easy as that particular possession as he would score just 4 more points over the next 15 minutes.

Brown, who dropped 38 points on Rogers HS Tuesday night in the GSL semifinals, was contained to just 6 points in the first half but found a lot more opportunities to score in the second half. Brown put 18 on the board to lead the Greyhounds with 24 points.

Brown broke out and scored right on par with his last two games against West Valley in which he scored 26 and 24 points respectively.

“It was a good team win. We needed a good contested win like that. Just a battle to the end defense everywhere. That’s what really won it for us was buckling down on defense. That was one of the lower-scoring games of the year,” Brown said. “We had to come together for that one.”

The 11-point difference was the lowest margin of victory of the year for the undefeated Greyhounds but the team seemed to revel in the challenge.

“Fun, it’s a lot more fun when it’s close, get to battle out more, closer to what it’s gonna be like when it’s state time,” said junior Caleb Northcroft.

Northcroft stepped up huge for the Greyhounds scoring 9 points and providing great defensive and offensive pressure off of the bench.

In the first half, West Valley guarded Brown well on his path to the basket forcing him to pitch the ball to the left wing, where a wide-open Northcroft stood ready to take the shot and sink the three.

“Great all-around kid and he did his job. He came in and just did what we needed him to do some defense and to hit some big shots,” Brown said.

With West Valley containing Brown in the first half, he had to rely on his teammates to get a lot of the scoring done.

“It feels good knowing that I can be there for my guys and they can trust me, no matter what’s going on,” Northcroft said.

Champ Powuakee continued his solid junior season by scoring 14 points including one 3-pointer.

In the final minute of the first half, Powaukee inbounded to Brown who chunked the ball across the court to Northcroft in the left wing who immediately passed it to Powaukee for the stand-up 3-pointer that evened the game 26–26 going into the break.

Powaukee shared a similar sentiment to Northcroft about the nature of a close game.

“It’s very different. it’s good though because that gets us better for state,” Powaukee said.

West Valley made more 3-point shots this time around than in their prior two games.

They shot 2-for-23 from deep last time out in Spokane. Northcroft said.

On Thursday, the Eagles knocked down eight threes. They also rebounded well and gave themselves a lot of second and even third-chance points.

The Greyhounds allowed too many rebounds to get away from them and back into the Eagles’ hands but settled into a defensive groove down the stretch.

“Just taking away threes at the beginning, careless turnovers and like just 3-pointers for them. Obviously, as we buckled down on taking care of the ball, we buckled down on defense as well,” Brown said.

The Eagles relied on Ben Fried (15 points) and Rosko Schroder (14 points) to exploit Pullman’s defensive mistakes.

However, the Greyhounds stepped up when it mattered to carve out a three-possession advantage in the fourth quarter.

Seniors Dane Sykes and Tanner Barbour scored 8 and 4 points respectively and junior Austin Hunt scored 5.

In the third quarter, the Eagles moved the ball all across the wings searching for an opportunity. They pitched the ball to Grady Walker in the left corner who drove to the basket with virtually no one near him. However, Powuakee sniffed out the attack and flung himself three feet down the court to block the shot to keep the Eagles at bay.

In a tight championship game, the Greyhounds proved the separation is in the preparation as his play on Walker’s shot was something he anticipated.

“Just do what I do and what we watch in film,” Powaukee said.

West Valley had only lost two games in the GSL prior to Thursday, both to Pullman. Pullman beat West Valley 58–40 Jan. 24 in Pullman and 63–45 Feb. 10 in Spokane.

In round three, Pullman held a 2-point advantage at the end of the first quarter, 13–11, tied it up at halftime 26–26 and held another 2-point lead after three-quarters of play, 42–40.

In the final seconds, the league MVP Brown found the ball in his hands and stood all alone as he took about half a dozen large steps down the court and lept toward the basket for an emphatic dunk.

“Just felt good to put a little statement on it and get ready to go for our crossover game,” Brown said. “We want to win that one. That’s a big one. So just getting ready to go give us some energy coming into that.”

The win granted Pullman at least one more home playoff game as the Greyhounds will host East Valley (Yakima) HS at 3 p.m. Saturday at Pullman HS before moving on to state at a yet-to-be-determined date and time.