Dave Alwert didn’t so much provide an answer when he was asked how it felt to be 3A Narrows League champions. The Wilson boys basketball coach simply grinned ear to ear.
It seemed fitting, as no one from Wilson had been asked that question in 14 years.
Kevin Johnson scored 20 points, Phoenix Waters added 14 and the visiting Rams came up with a stingy second-half defensive performance to capture the championship with a 57-47 victory over Timberline on Friday.
“We don’t win this title without defense. We don’t win this game without it,” said Alwert, whose team improved to 17-2 overall and 9-0 in league play with the win. “Defense is the reason for all our success this year.”
Wilson, which has won nine consecutive games, held the Blazers scoreless for the opening 51/2 minutes of the third quarter before bettering that effort by holding Timberline without a point through the first 61/2 minutes of the fourth quarter.
It was needed, as Timberline enjoyed a 34-30 lead at the half.
“We weren’t communicating and we were playing selfish,” Alwert said. “I just reminded them at halftime that we’ve done that twice all year and those were our only two defeats.”
Wilson, which last won a league title in 1998, has not lost since dropping a 54-41 holiday tournament game on Dec. 30 to Squalicum, a program that won back-to-back Class 2A state championships in 2009 and 2010 and was the state runner-up to Clover Park last season.
“This team knows its identity,” said Alwert, who is in his fourth season with the Rams. “We’re certainly not the tallest, but we were strong and play well as a team.”
Waters scored nine of his 14 points in the second half, going 6-for-6 from the free throw line and hitting a pair of 3-pointers.
“It all starts with our senior point guard Phoenix,” Alwert said. “This will be my first class through. It’s a special group. They just find ways to get things done.”
Theron Nystrom scored 17 points for the Blazers (6-13, 1-8).
Timberline made just four field goals in the second half as Wilson opened up both the third and fourth quarters on 9-0 runs.
Nystrom scored 10 first-half points and Tyler Gartner hit a 3 at the conclusion of the second quarter to help Timberline erase an 8-point deficit en route to its halftime lead.
Wilson scored the game’s first eight points and registered its second 8-0 run of the first quarter to double up the Blazers at 16-8.
Ben Matz had the hot hand early for the Rams, sinking a pair of 3s in the opening 2 minutes and scoring eight points in the first quarter to help the Rams to a 21-15 advantage.
Matz, however, would leave the game with an injured right ankle with 5 minutes, 58 seconds left in the second quarter and Wilson holding a 23-20 lead.
With Matz out, the Blazers grabbed their first lead of the game at 27-26 on a Nystrom 3-pointer and closed out the half outscoring the Rams 14-7.
Wilson will look to close out a perfect league record Wednesday when it hosts Lincoln in the regular-season finale. The Rams edged the Abes, 52-51, in the first meeting.
Johnson, Waters and Jaiden Martin, who had 11 points, combined to score all 27 second-half points for Wilson.
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