4A State Day-1

The WIAA/Dairy Farmers of Washington Class 4A Boy’s State Basketball Tournament tipped off Wednesday morning in the Tacoma Dome with the Eisenhower Cadets facing the Prairie Falcons. 16 teams begin the battle for the Big Gold Ball to be awarded Saturday night.

Eisenhower and Prairie opened the day’s fun and games with a game that was just about as even as they come. Ike got the “W” 48-45 with 6-7 junior Jack Loofburrow dropping in 22 points and getting a double-double with 13 rebounds. Nate Gipson tacked on 12 points on 5-for-7 shooting from the field. Jordan Ard led the Falcons with 16 points while Orlandor Westbrook had 13 rebounds to go with his 8 points. Both teams had 18 turnovers, both grabbed 9 steals. Ike won the battle of the boards 34-33. The T-Dome got the “W” over the shooters as the two teams combined to hit just 1 of 13 three-point tries.

Ike overcame a nine-point second quarter deficit, closing the half with a 14-3 run for a 24-23 lead at the break. Eisenhower opened the third quarter with a 12-0 run for a 13-point advantage and appeared poised to run the Falcons out of the gym. But Prairie answered with a 10-0 run to cut it to 36-33. The Falcons got to within a single point several times in the 4th but Loofburrow’s pair of free throws in the final 40 seconds iced it for Ike.

Ike Coach Pat Fitterer won state titles with Sehome and Highland, both times out of the 9:00 a.m. Day-1 start time.

Kentwood jumped on Pasco in a hurry and closed the first quarter with a 6-0 run over the final 1:49 for a 19-10 lead after 8:00. The defending champions wasted no time in sending a strong message that they were here to defend their title. The Conqs had built a comfortable 31-15 lead by the half. Senior guard Blake Solomon scored 11 points in the half. Pasco shot just 28.6% from the field and turned it over nine times in the first half.

Pasco opened the third quarter with a 10-2 run in just under four minutes and cut the Conq’s lead down to 33-29 on a Jerome Houf trey. Jared Leopold scored seven points in the final three minutes of the quarter and KW took a 44-37 advantage into the final quarter. Both teams heated it up in the third with Kentwood hitting 60% from the field, Pasco 58.3%.

Kentwood stretched the lead to a dozen at 54-42 with 3:54 remaining but when Cameron Houf knocked down a pair from the line to cap a 7-0 Dog run it was 54-49 at the 1:53 mark. Aaron Boyce hit a pair of freebies and Leopold added a third for a 57-49 score heading to the final sixty seconds. Jerome Houf sandwiched a pair of treys around a pair of free tosses by Solomon (pictured at right) and Pasco had it down to 60-55. But the bad news, only 10 ticks remained. For the third year in a row Kentwood was headed to the quarterfinals, holding on for a 62-55 win.

Solomon finished with 17 points while Leopold and Aaron Boyce added 10 each. Jeff Middleton’s 17 points paced Pasco while Jerome Houf added 13, hitting all three of his trey tries.

So the first quarterfinal is set, 23-3 Eisenhower versus 22-5 Kentwood.

Next up, South Kitsap and Roosevelt in a rematch of a pair of regular season games swept by the Wolves. 24-1 South K, the 2004 runner-up, is in the dance for the fifth consecutive year while 20-5 Roosevelt is making their first appearance since 1987.

In their two previous games South Kitsap trailed and needed to overcome double-digit deficits in each contest to pull out the win. The Wolves had been there, done that and decided to try a different tact. They led 15-10 after one quarter, 28-18 at the half. Jamil Moore scored seven of his nine first half points in the first quarter while fellow senior Derrick Webb (pictured at left) got nine of his 11 first half points in the second period, including a horn-beating three-pointer to end the half.

The Wolves kept it up, stretching their lead to 42-27 by the end of the third quarter and looked to be firmly on their way to another quarterfinal game. Webb had upped his scoring to 16 points on six of nine shooting from the field. Meanwhile Roosevelt star Marcus Williams had managed just 10 points and had hit just three of his 12 tries from the field. The Riders were 0-for-10 from outside the arc while South K had hit 33% from deep. Overall the Wolves were shooting 47.1% while the Riders a meager 31.4 from the field.

Webb scored 10 more in the next five minutes and when he hit two from the line the Wolves had a 20-point, 54-34, lead with 3:00 to play. There’s a reason South Kitsap went 20-0 in the regular season, they’re good, really good. Wolves take it 64-48 and head for the quarterfinals. Webb totals 24 points, 9-of-9 from the foul line. Moore adds 13 and Josh Monagle 12. David Grant scored 22 in the loss while South K limited Marcus Williams to just 10 points, 19 below his average.

Uh oh, the West Central District is 2-1. Last year they went 7-1 on opening day. They won’t this year, they “only” got seven berths.

In the final game of the “upper half” of the bracket, 17-9 North Kitsap and 17-6 Kamiak featured the two teams with the fewest losses among the 16-team field. Jacob Gonzales went off, dropping 40 “bigguns” on the Knights and North Kitsap took the same road as South Kitsap, knocking out the Knights 62-52. Gonzales hit 11 of 16 shots from the field and 18 of 20 from the foul line. Sean Hermes and Rahiti Marere had 12 points each in Kamiak’s first ever game at state.

The WCD moved to 3-1 through four games.

The Bethel Braves came out smokin’, hitting 75% from the field in the first quarter and running out to a 23-12 lead be quarter’s end against Gonzaga Prep. It was a total-team effort as each of the Braves’ first four baskets was scored by a different player.

Bethel’s lead hit 21 at 39-18 on an Alex Tiefenthaler lay-up with 1:27 remaining in the half and sat at 42-22 at the half. The 6-8 Tiefenthaler and fellow senior guard Jordan Sutton (pictured at right, above) both scored 11 in the half while 6-8 senior Brandon Moore added 9 points with seven rebounds.

The Braves were cruising along, up 44-26 at the 6:44 mark before the BullPups caught fire. Brandon Kennedy scored 11, with a pair of treys, and Ian Parry added a pair of buckets points and GP rolled off a 15-2 run in a 3:44 time frame and just like that it was a game, 46-41, with 1:45 showing in the third quarter. The score stayed put until the end of the period.

The Pups hung close and when Travis Walker scored with 51 ticks remaining it was a three-point game, 54-51 Bethel. Tiefenthaler hit a pair from the line, 56-51, with 31 seconds left. Mike Yusko came up with the play of the game with a blocked shot he controlled, was fouled, and hit another pair for a 58-51 score with 20 seconds showing. Kennedy hit a pair of freebies, 58-53 with 15 to go. It stayed that way and the Braves move on to the quarterfinals.

Sutton finished with 16 points and 4 assists. Moore tacked on a d-d with 14 points and 11 boards, Tiefenthaler added 13 points with 7 rebounds. Kennedy had 22, Parry 15 for the BullPups.

WARNING! Attempting to go inside the paint with Jon Brockman may be hazardous to your health. Consider yourself warned. Next up Snohomish against Evergreen from Vancouver. Just under three minutes in it’s 12-2 Snohomish. Brockman (pictured at left) had scored 6 points and grabbed 3 boards. Heed the WARNING! He had 4 boards in the first quarter, Evergreen had 3.

By the 5:49 mark of the second Snohomish had built their lead to 29-13 as Jake Hammons nailed a trio of treys and had scored 13 points. Brockman meanwhile had 8 rebounds, Evergreen 5.

The Panthers hit from everywhere and had a comfortable 45-22 lead at the half and Brockman already had a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Hammons hit four treys with 15 points while Nate Van Duine tacked on 13 points. Oh, Evergreen had reached double digits with a pair of late boards.

The beating continued, Hammons hit three more bombs while Brockman was up to 21 points and 18 boards at the end of the third quarter. Snohomish led 66-37. Evergreen had 16 rebounds total.

The Panthers advanced 71-56. Brockman finished with 22 points and 19 boards. Hammons had 24 points. Cory Neal scored 15 in the loss. Snohomish will meet Bethel with their pair of 6-8 guys in the quarterfinals.

The Ferris Saxons jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead over Mountlake Terrace before the Hawks ran off a 16-6 run for a 16-12 lead at the end of the first quarter. Terrace was owning the paint and held a 13-4 advantage on the glass behind four boards from 6-7 senior Leigh Swanson (pictured at left).

After Terrace opened the second quarter with an Adrian Blake three-ball bucket, Ferris went on a 10-0 run for a 22-21 lead on a pair of Jeremy Templeton free throws at the 5:24 mark. Christian Hammond drilled a pair of treys from the right corner in the span of 8 seconds and Terrace led 27-24. Hammond’s two free throws moments later made it a 10-point game at 34-24. It was 34-27 at the half.

The Saxons got to within a single point at 35-34 on a Brian Hallet trey with 6:00 showing in the third but the Mike Boxley’s five personal 5-0 run following a Blake bucket pushed it to 42-34 with 1:46 remaining in the third. Andrew Mundt’s pair from the line sent the Hawks to the fourth quarter with a 10-point lead at 44-34.

Early in the fourth Swanson scored back-to-back buckets and Blake added a deuce and terrace led 53-38 passing through 5:00 to play. Terrace was showing their hunger after two straight 0-2 appearances at state. Ferris never got it under 12 and Mountlake Terrace advanced 62-50.

Boxley and Swanson both scored 12 with Boxley adding 8 boards, Swanson 7. Terrace outboarded the Saxons 37-23. Hammond and Blake both scored 11 points for four Hawks in double figures. Templeton’s 14 points paced Ferris

Curtis sophomore guard Isaiah Thomas (pictured at left) lit up Inglemoor for 28 points, going 17-for-17 from the foul line in the Viking’s 60-45 win over the other Vikings. Skyler Riley hit for six treys for 18 of his 21 points in the loss. Curtis doubled up Inglemoor on the boards with a 48-24 advantage. Chris Sprinker cleaned the glass 15 times while Zeke Hill and Anthony Gibbs had nine boards each.

So the quarterfinals are set. 23-3 Eisenhower faces 22-5 Kentwood, 25-1 South Kitsap gets 18-9 North Kitsap, 25-2 Bethel takes on 19-6 Snohomish and 20-5 Mountlake Terrace meets 20-6 Curtis.

In the consolation bracket 22-7 Prairie meets 20-5 Pasco, 20-6 Roosevelt gets 17-7 Kamiak, 18-9 Gonzaga Prep faces 20-8 Evergreen and 20-5 Ferris takes on 21-3 Inglemoor.

Here’s the breakdown by league after day-1:

SPSL 3-0

Narrows 2-0

WesCo 2-1

Big Nine 1-1

KingCo 0-2

Greater Spokane 0-2

Greater St. Helens 0-2