Rainier Beach takes down rival Garfield in 3A semifinal

Considered the “true” 3A state championship game, No. 1 Garfield and No. 2 Rainier Beach faced off in the semifinals Friday night at the Tacoma Dome.

The game lived up to its unofficial billing.

Rainier Beach (23-5) overcame an 11-point halftime deficit to take down Garfield, 66-61. The Vikings will face O’Dea in the 3A title game 7 p.m. Saturday.

Garfield used dead-eye free-throw shooting to take a 40-29 halftime lead, going 16 for 19 from the stripe over the first two quarters.

The Vikings wasted no time erasing the deficit. Rainier Beach scored 12 straight points to open the third quarter, taking its first lead of the night, 41-40.

Junior forward Nkeil Nelson scored seven points during the 12-0 run — part of his 16-point second half. Nelson was held to just two points prior to intermission.

“I dug down deep and decided I could not lose this game; this is the biggest game of my high school career so far,” said Nelson, who transferred to Rainier Beach from Shadle Park. “My freshman year we came to state and lost every single game. I vowed to myself that next time I come, I’m not losing no games.”

Senior guard Sam Cunliffe scored seven straight points in the fourth quarter as Rainier Beach put the game away. His 3-pointer from the left corner gave the Vikings a 58-54 lead, and he followed it with a dunk in transition after getting a feed from Khalil Shabazz.

Cunliffe gave Rainier Beach an eight-point lead by knocking down a tough fadeaway jumper from the right elbow.

“You gotta be a killer,” said Cunliffe. “Those shots are hard shots to make; you might miss ’em, you might not. But if you don’t take them, you never know. I just decided I’m going to take these shots, and if they go in, great, and if not I’m gonna live with it.”

Terrell Brown and Jaylen Nowell each scored 13 points to lead Garfield. The Bulldogs shot just 32.1 percent from the field for the game, and were held to 21 second-half points.

Garfield (25-3) plays Kennedy Catholic in the third place/fifth place game on 11:15 a.m. Saturday.

This story was originally published March 4, 2016 at 8:24 PM with the headline "Rainier Beach takes down rival Garfield in 3A semifinal."