Curtis turns up the defense, advances to 4A semis with 54-44 win over Central Valley

Aushanti Potts-Woods didn’t have his best offensive game.

His defense and that of the rest of the Curtis High School boys basketball team more than made up for that.

The Vikings pulled away in the second half for a 54-44 victory over Central Valley on Thursday at the Tacoma Doma to advance to the Class 4A state semifinals.

Potts-Woods had 10 points — well short of the two-time league MVP’s average of 25. But he held CV’s Cameron Tucker to three points on the defensive end.

“We’ll take the defense,” Curtis coach Tim Kelly said. “And we’ll take the ‘W.’

“We knew it was going to be a defensive battle. We talked about it at halftime that 50 was going to win it and that it was our job to keep them under 50.”

Curtis makes advancing in the Tacoma Dome look easy.

It has won its Tacoma Dome opener in each of its past four trips here. The Vikings will play 4A South Puget Sound League counterpart Kentwood at 7:15 p.m. Friday.

How good is the 4A SPSL this year?

Federal Way advanced, too. So three of the four semifinal teams are from the league.

But to get to the semis, Curtis had to overcome a 26-24 halftime deficit against Central Valley.

It did so on the defensive end, turning up its full-court press midway through the third quarter and outscoring the Bears 30-18 in the second half.

Ryan Rehkow led the Bears 17 points and nine rebounds.

CV made five 3-pointers in the first half. It was 1 for 11 in the second.

“That’s pressure,” Kelly said. “Pressure constantly wears you out. We tell our kids all of the time, it’s not going to happen in the first quarter. It’s not going to happen in the second quarter or maybe the third. But if you keep on them, at some point the conditioning takes over.”

Potts-Woods was 1 for 8 shooting in the first half for three points, but he made a transition 3-pointer on the third possession of the second half to get going.

Junior forward John Moore and junior point guard Nate Ward put the game away in the fourth quarter.

Central Valley cut the lead to 41-38 on Tanner Sloan’s 3-pointer, but Moore and Ward combined to score 10 of Curtis’ final 13 points.

“That’s the money time right there,” Moore said. “Just got to get to the rack. They were trying to play into me.”

Moore finished with 13 points, and Ward scored 11.

“(Moore’s) ability to drive to the basket was tough,” Central Valley coach Rick Sloan said. “He was the toughest matchup for us.”

Sloan and Kelly said they are good friends, which they said was the toughest part about this game.

“Back in my younger days, this would have probably really bothered me,” Sloan joked. “But I know (Kelly) does it the right way and is a good man.”

“It wasn’t fun,” Kelly said. “When you play somebody who is a long-time friend like that and you respect their program, it’s never easy.

“But it’s better to be on our end.”

This story was originally published March 3, 2016 at 9:34 PM with the headline "Curtis turns up the defense, advances to 4A semis with 54-44 win over Central Valley."