Auburn Mountainview’s late run not enough in 75-61 loss to No. 2 Rainier Beach

The Auburn Mountainview High School boys basketball team made one final push.

It just wasn’t enough.

Not against Rainier Beach — a team that had two Pac-12 commits, has reached the state tournament 21 times in school history and has reached the state championship each of the past four years, winning three of them.

AMV trailed by 21 points in the third quarter, cut that lead to seven but ultimately saw its season end with a 75-61 loss to the second-ranked Vikings in the regional round of the Class 3A state tournament on Friday at Rogers High School.

“We knew this could be our last game and we didn’t want to let our coaches and our teammates down,” said Lions senior guard Ryan Lacey, who scored a game-high 24 points. “So we kept fighting. It just wasn’t enough.”

Rainier Beach (21-5) advances to the 3A state quarterfinals Thursday at the Tacoma Dome against an opponent to be determined. Arizona State commit Sam Cunliffe scored 21 points, Kevin Porter added 20 and Oregon commit Keith Smith 13 in front of a packed gymnasium that included UW coach Lorenzo Romar and former Rainier Beach star Dejounte Murray, who walked into the gym with his head covered by a purple UW hoodie.

Beach’s first points of the game came on a set play that led to a dunk. It took a double-digit lead just minutes into the second quarter against fourth-ranked Auburn Mountainview (23-2).

Lions coach Thomas Ostrander said he only spoke to his team afterward about all they had accomplished — their second consecutive 3A South Puget Sound League title, the school’s first district championship in school history and its first state berth.

But he also said the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association got it wrong matching up these two teams in a state regional.

“I think the WIAA knows its system is flawed,” Ostrander said. “There’s no doubt about it. The reason why they don’t get a packed house in the Tacoma Dome is because they know the top eight teams aren’t there.

“Our team clearly belongs there. It’s just a tough draw.”

Rainier Beach earned the No. 5 seed from the SeaKing district after a first-round loss to O’Dea, in which it was without Porter and Cunliffe had a 102-degree temperature, Rainier Beach coach Mike Bethea said.

It won the rest of its games to lock that five seed, which matched them against Auburn Mountainview.

“It’s the equivalent of going into March Madness,” Ostrander said. “Virginia is probably a No. 1 seed. But say Virginia loses in the first round of the ACC tournament and the selection committee says, ‘Oh, sorry. You lost in the first round of your conference tournament. So the best you can get is a No. 10 seed.’

“So the No. 1 seed is playing them in the second round? What? How does that work?”

Ostrander was asked if he would have rather lost his district title game to Enumclaw if his team knew it was going to play Stanwood, versus winning and playing Rainier Beach.

Auburn Mountainview beat Stanwood by 11 points on Jan. 18. Enumclaw plays Stanwood at 10 a.m. Saturday at Mount Tahoma for a shot at reaching the state quarterfinals.

“I would still pick win the district title,” Ostrander said. “You can’t take that away. It’s a special thing to cut down the net.

“It’s just going to be tough not going to the state tournament knowing that we are better than most of the teams there. I think that’s the hard part is not being able to prove that and show that. This is a special team and a special group and I honestly believe we were one of the top three or four teams in the state, for sure.”

This story was originally published February 26, 2016 at 11:25 PM with the headline "Auburn Mountainview’s late run not enough in 75-61 loss to No. 2 Rainier Beach."