White Station's Leron Black lifts a shot through West Linn's Haydon Coppedge (33) and Ben Shearmire (44) in the first quarter. Sean Nakamura | SL

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White Station's Davell Roby makes a shot attempt over West Linn's Kevin Edwards. Jim LeBeau | SL

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West Linn's Payton Pritchard handles the basketball against White Station. Sean Nakamura | SL

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White Station's Chris Chiozza completes a lay-up after breaking away from West Linn. Sean Nakamura | SL

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Fri, Dec 20, 2013 @ Iolani

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West Linn

54

White Station

66

Final	1	2	3	4
West Linn	8	13	16	17	54
White Station	17	11	15	23	66

L. Black 26 pts  0/2 FTs

A. Mathis 20 pts  4 3pm  0/1 FTs

The three-point shot may be the great equalizer, but White Station turned the tide with hard work inside the paint and an opportunistic defense on the other end of the court in a hard-fought 66-54 win over West Linn in the first semifinal of the Iolani Prep Classic.

White Station's Leron Black scored a game-high 26 points, virtually all of them from point-blank range, and was a dominant presence on the backboard as the Spartans weathered a furious rally in the middle stages by West Linn.

Down 28-17 in late in the half, the Lions proceeded to rattle off nine consecutive points, ignited by a steal and breakaway layup by Payton Pritchard at about the 1:20 mark that broke a nearly four minute drought.

Haydon Coppedge followed with three-ball from the left wing and Pritchard capped off the 9-0 run with a buzzer-beating three to tighten up the score to 28-21 at the intermission.

Coming out of the break, the Lions continued the rally, with Anthony Mathis finding the range on a 14-foot jumper to open up the scoring in the third and then found the range from distance on the ensuing possession that trimmed the lead to just a bucket at 28-26.

West Linn would not get any closer than a duece however, as White Station countered with a big bucket or a defensive stop seemingly each time the Lions clawed back, eventually building the lead back to double digits near the back half of the third.

Ryan Shearmire pulled West Linn to within four after hitting his third triple of the contest, the Lions' twelvth overall, and a steal by Mathis on the very next possession resulted in a fast break opportunity that could have cut the margin back to two, but the shot was a bit strong off the backboard and was rebounded by White Station.

The Spartans added a key bucket by Davell Roby to push the margin out to four, and a Chiozza steal to breakaway layup effectively sealed the win. He finished with 12 points, 2 threes, and at least a half-dozen steals.

Black hit 13 field goals in the contest, seemingly all of them within the painted area, including no less than three buckets coming after outworking multiple West Linn players for the offensive board, and muscling the putback home.

West Linn was led by Mathis, who scored 20 points and hit 4 threes, and Shearmire added 11 points and 3 threes of his own.

The Spartans will take on Westchester, a 42-40 winner over Roman Catholic, in the title game set for 8:00 p.m. Saturday.