Demetrius Crosby has career-best scoring night, Foss edges Renton for 2A SPSL title and streak is now 39 wins

That got out of hand quickly

The Foss High School boys basketball team had a 16-point lead. Then it didn’t. Then it was tied in the fourth quarter.

It was hard not to get tired just watching all this fast-paced, back-and-forth, up-tempo action all unfold.

“I’m worn out,” Foss’ Demetrius Crosby said with a laugh afterward, his right leg wrapped in ice.

He was huffing and puffing on the court, not that he was going to let Foss coach Mike Cocke’ sub him out. The last time Crosby said he was this worn out was when they played Selah last year – in the 2A state championship game.

“This was like getting ready for state,” he said.

Crosby scored a career-high 35 points to fuel No. 2 Foss’ late surge in an 83-65 win over No. 9 Renton on Friday night to secure their second consecutive 2A South Puget Sound League title.

It was the third time this season Crosby has scored at least 30 points.

“Outstanding – outstanding kid,” Renton coach Rick Comer said. “It will be a fun matchup when we see them again.

That would take meeting in next week’s 2A West Central District tournament, where Foss takes the SPSL’s No. 1 seed and Renton is the No. 2. Or later if both qualify for the state tournament after. Foss gets a bye into the second round of the district tournament and will host the winner of Port Angeles-Highline at 7 p.m. Friday.

But it was clear from the onset of this one that both these teams wanted to let their standout guards push the tempo. They looked like mirror images of each other.

“That’s our game, that up-tempo game, but they had a better shooting night,” Comer said. “A much better shooting night. I take my hat off to them, We haven’t faced many teams that tough, and I think they would say the same about us. We look forward to seeing them hopefully down the road and it will hopefully be another great matchup.”

It didn’t look like it would be early.

Not with Foss’ Micah Pollard hitting NBA-range 3-pointers in the first quarter. He finished with 18 points and Foss (17-3; 14-0 2A SPSL Mountain) had a 14-4 lead halfway through the opening period. His second-quarter put-back gave Foss a 31-15 lead.

But Renton stayed afloat by attacking the offensive glass. It had nine rebounds in the first half and went into halftime trailing 36-26, when it looked like Foss should have runaway.

“We knew coming in that they wanted it to be a street fight and do what we do and we do what they do,” Cocke’ said. “We don’t zone a ton, but we went zone tonight and we gave up some seconds and thirds. That was the game plan was to not give up second shots.”

It was almost reminiscent of Foss’ losses to Lincoln and O’Dea, when Foss built leads in each only to see it squandered away at the end.

And then came Renton, using a 13-4 run into the fourth quarter to tie the game at 56-56 with 6:58 to play. Jaloni Garner led the Indians (18-3; 14-0 2A SPSL Sound) with 14 points and Malik Coats had 13.

But here’s the thing: Foss has not lost to a 2A team since moving down from the 3A classification before the start of last season. It was looking to push that streak to 38 consecutive – even if it was against a Renton team that also went down from 3A to 2A four years ago.

“I said in the huddle that we just got to stay composed,” Crosby said. “It’s a game of runs and everybody goes on runs. I told my team to stay composed. That was it.”

Sounds like a state-championship kind of sentiment – Foss would go on an 18-3 run to push its lead to 74-59 with 3:10 to play.

“It’s just about tradition,” Crosby said. “My dad, last year’s team – we just want to win. We’re all competitors and we just want to win.”

Demetrius Crosby Sr. was the star player on Foss’ 2000 state title team before the younger Crosby started on last year’s team that brought the gold ball back to the school.

His dad might have been a little bigger and a little better shooter back in the day, Foss coach Mike Cocke’ said. And this Crosby has just as bright a future ahead in football as he does basketball.

But it’s not bad when a football player is averaging 21.6 points per game.

“He was gassed,” Cocke’ said. “When he plays as hard as he plays, I would love to get him more breaks. But it’s so hard to do. He just leaves it all on the floor.”

But a big part of Foss’ late run was also Damani Kelly. He found 6-foot-7 freshman Kenzel Massey for a 3-pointer and then set up Crosby for a wide-open 3 the following possession before hitting on of his own for a 9-0 stretch. Kelly finished with 14 points.

Crosby hit four 3-pointers and so did Pollard. Foss hit 13 3-pointers, two games after hitting a school-record 17 3s against White River.

“We can shoot the ball,” Cocke’ said. “We got guys who can knock down shots and are not scared of the moment. That’s kind of our identity right now.

“They shoot with confidence and I don’t get on guys for shot-selection stuff. I get on them for effort. But if you’re in rhythm, let it go.”

This story was originally published February 2, 2018 at 11:08 PM with the headline "Demetrius Crosby has career-best scoring night, Foss edges Renton for 2A SPSL title and streak is now 39 wins."