The Vashon High school boys’ basketball team played two District 3 playoff games this past week, with one loss against Nisqually League’s Seattle Christian Warriors and one win against Olympic League’s Chimacum Cowboys.
District 3 is one of nine state districts throughout Washington and encompasses both the Nisqually and Olympic leagues. This stage of the Washington state basketball playoffs, the district tournament, determines the seeding of the three teams that reach the regional playoffs later this week.
Seattle Christian:
The first game of the week was held at Sumner High School and turned out to be a last-shot loss for the Pirates. The game started out very strong for Vashon with crisp passing and solid rebounding. Senior Sean Delargy kicked off the scoring early with a three-pointer and then consecutive rebound put-backs by seniors Alex Symbol and Sam Yates put Vashon up 10-0 early.
Seattle Christian woke up and finally scored some points with senior Taggart Anderson sinking multiple three-pointers and showing some speed on fast breaks against Vashon’s miscues. However, Vashon junior Casper Forest was on fire from range, sinking multiple threes himself. At the end of the half, Vashon was up by seven with a score of 32-25.
The second half was very physical and neither team was willing to give up. Seattle Christian started ripping down rebounds, but Vashon’s strong pressure defense forced a timeout from the Warriors. Anderson took over the offense for Seattle Christian and scored many of the points that brought Seattle Christian back in the game, shrinking Vashon’s lead to five at the end of three.
The Warriors fought hard in the final period, and the lead swayed back and forth between the teams. After Seattle Christian stole the ball and hit a long-range jump shot, Vashon players found themselves down by three with 10 seconds left in the game, desperately trying to get the ball down the court. Meanwhile, the Warriors focused on preventing Vashon’s long-range shooters from getting the ball with aggressive double-teaming defense. After one last desperate attempt with 1.4 seconds left, the buzzer sounded, and Vashon lost the game.
Chimacum:
Because of the loss to Seattle Christian, Vashon played its next game in the tournament against the Chimacum Cowboys, who had lost to Cascade Christian earlier in the day.
In the Friday night game, also held at Sumner High School, Vashon looked much more like the Nisqually champions they are and prevailed easily in the game, avoiding elimination from the state basketball tournament.
Vashon was determined from the outset and started with rebound put-backs, three-pointers and fast breaks coming from all of the starters. The Pirates exhibited the solid defense that was missing from the second half of the previous game.
Vashon senior Sam Schoenberg brought his spark to the game, hitting a quick release three-pointer and blocking multiple shot attempts from the Cowboys. Not to be outdone, Yates delivered his deep three-pointer, hitting from almost 24 feet out. The first half ended with Vashon dominating and up 34-19.
The second half was much of the same, with Vashon’s starters fighting hard even with a big lead. The Pirates had regained focus and recovered well from the loss on Tuesday, none of Vashon’s starting five missed a single free throw the entire game.
As the game dwindled, Vashon head coach Andy Sears put in his young bench players and, despite playing against the starters of Chimacum, they held firm, closing out the game with a 65-44 win.
Vashon moves on to the next stage of the state basketball tournament as District 3’s number three seed. Seattle Christian is number one and Cascade Christian is the number two seed.
The regional tournament games will be held at neutral sites. Vashon’s next game will be at 4 p.m. Saturday at Mountlake Terrace High School against the Kings Knights.
— Joel Schoenberg is the father of a Pirate boys’ basketball player.
