Mead's Morrison rises again

TACOMA — Mead rode the hot hand of Gonzaga-bound Adam Morrison into tonight's Class 4A boys basketball state championship game against Franklin.

Morrison, the all-time leading scorer in the Greater Spokane League, poured in 26 points as the quick-starting Panthers (28-0) remained the state's only undefeated 4A team by beating Prairie of Vancouver, 62-51.

Morrison, a 6-foot-7 forward who must monitor his blood-sugar level throughout the game because he is diabetic, has scored 90 points in Mead's three triumphs this week. The state-tournament record is 127, set in 1989 by another point machine from Mead, Jeff Brown.

Morrison was lifted from last night's victory with more than three minutes to play to rest for tonight.

This will be the first title-game appearance for Mead, which will try to become the first Spokane team since Ferris in 1994 to win the state big-school title.

The second-ranked Panthers are eager for the 9 p.m. televised showdown against top-ranked Franklin.

"This is what we've waited for all of our lives — this (championship) game," Mead senior guard Eric Fink said. "We made it."

Senior Bryan Adams said, "We're going to have to play one of the our best games of the year to beat them."

Mead Coach Glenn Williams said, "Franklin reduces this game to a very raw, basic element. That is, they are going to run the ball at you hard, and you've got to get that ball tamed and controlled. Make them play defense. If we can do that, we can be very competitive."

Mead got off to a splendid start last night and led 25-8 after one quarter. Morrison had 13 points in the opening quarter and Prairie had nine turnovers.

"Our kids were steely eyed," Williams said.

Prairie Coach Kyle Brooks said, "The difference was we didn't show up in the first quarter and they got off to a red-hot start. We put ourselves in a hole."

Mead led 51-31 going into the final eight minutes. Mead's starters were out of the game with three minutes to play, and a late Prairie rush made the score look closer than the game was.

John McKee led the Falcons with 12 points.

Prairie (22-7) was attempting to duplicate the feat of its girls team, which earlier in the evening beat Redmond 52-43 to advance to tonight's title game against Central Valley of Spokane.