Washington survives Jefferson's U2

By Jeff Johnson The Gazette CEDAR RAPIDSTheir free-throw shooting in the dying seconds was big-time shaky, but their defense was big-time big time. Cedar Rapids Washington missed a pair of potentially game-clinching one-and-ones but hung on to edge Cedar Rapids Jefferson, 60-57, in a fine Class 4A boys basketball substate semifinal last night at Washington.The Warriors trip to Tuesday night's substate final against No. 2 Linn-Mar at the U.S. Cellular Center wasn't secured until Jefferson (11-11) missed a pair of tying 3-pointers in the last 9.9 seconds. Neither was a very good shot: a well-guarded Joby Frey attempt from the top of the key and a desperation turnaround heave from the corner by Jarrod Uthoff that was partially deflected. That kind of D bailed out Washington's Chad Christensen and Shay Gutman, normally good free-throw shooters who came up empty from the stripe in the frantic final 30 seconds. "I still felt pretty good that we would able to defend", said Washington Coach Brad Metzger. "Everybody really stepped up there on defense", Christensen said. "It was a tense situation, but I thought everybody kept their poise and did what we needed to do to get the victory." That included the entire second half, really. Washington (17-5), which beat Jefferson by double-digits twice in the regular season, trailed at halftime, 25-21, but rallied behind the long-distance shooting of Christensen and sophomore Josh Oglesby. Oglesby had a team-high 16 points, 11 in the second half. That included four 3-pointers, one with 2:11 left that gave Washington a 58-53 lead. Christensen added four triples and 14 points.Half of Washington's 20 field goals came from distance. "Coach at halftime kind of got on us that they were out-hustling us and everything," Oglesby said. "We took that to (heart) and came out in the second half and gave it all we had. We came around and got the victory."Not without absolutely valiant performances from Jefferson's U2 inside combo. Senior Chad Underwood and sophomore Uthoff were unstoppable at times, finishing with 28 and 20 points, respectively. "We knew we had to come out aggressive because they had beaten us by so much the first two games," said Underwood, who was 13 of 23 from the field. "We had the lead at halftime, we were in the driver's seat, but we let it slip away. "It was getting frustrating," Oglesby said. "We talked about them basically the whole week ... We knew all along that they were going to be tough, and our big dudes hung in there. I give them all the credit in the world."Sam O'Donnell added 12 points for Washington, which lost to Linn-Mar in the regular season, 65-44.