Seattle Pacific signee Shaw Anderson and Kelso to much for Wilson in 3A opening round

It took an almighty run for the Wilson High School boys to return to the Tacoma Dome – but a matchup with 6-foot-5 forward Shaw Anderson and the Kelso Hilanders in the opening round of the Class 3A state tournament sent the Rams home early.

No. 5 Kelso defeated No. 12 Wilson, 59-42, behind Anderson’s 27 points and 15 rebounds, a monstrous performance by the Seattle Pacific signee that the Rams couldn’t match on either end.

“The journey to get here — four in a row loser-outs, two of them double overtime games – our seniors really rose to the occasion to get us just to this point,” Wilson coach Mike Cocke’ said.

“We weren’t satisfied to be here, but we just weren’t really good tonight. Credit Kelso, but also some of that was on us just not making shots, not executing.”

The Rams couldn’t find a rhythm on offense, settling too often for contested jumpers in the painted area that refused to fall.

Dominique Ellison gave Wilson a spark at the end of the first half, finishing a three-point play with 31 seconds left and then grabbing a steal as Kelso tried to take the ball the other way.

The Rams couldn’t score off of that extra possession, however, and went into the halftime break trailing 22-17.

Part of those offensive struggles stemmed from the absence of junior guard Damani Green, who was injured in the 3A West Central/Southwest bidistrict tournament and didn’t play, forcing the Rams to play with a different identity on the break and in the half court.

“(Green) does a lot to try to get us some buckets in transition and he’s a tough matchup for anybody because he’s just a quick guard who can get to the rim,” Cocke’ said.

“But, we struggled a lot in the half court this year, honestly. Against a team that really slows it down and makes you play half court basketball, that’s kind of our kryptonite. We got exposed a little bit, for sure.”

Wilson’s zone defense bogged down Kelso shooters in the first half, but the Hilanders unloaded in the third quarter to blow the game open.

Seniors Riley Noah and Anderson worked a smooth inside-outside attack, with Noah contributing 17 points and seven rebounds to complement Anderson’s looming presence in the paint.

With 3:35 left in the third quarter, Noah canned his third 3-pointer to push Kelso to its first double-digit lead of the game.

“It’s hard to shoot in the Dome, we knew that and so we wanted to make them make some shots,” Cocke’ said of the pair. “I thought it was pretty good in the first half, but in the third quarter Noah really got going and made some 3’s, finally chased us out of our zone. They are two phenomenal high school players, they’re great kids.”

“I feel like it was a little nerve-wracking in the beginning,” Anderson said. “Once we got that first half out the way … we really clicked as a team in the second half.”

Kelso advances to face Rainier Beach, last year’s 3A runner-up, in the quarterfinals Thursday at 7:15 p.m.

“(Tonight’s win) was huge. It’s a great weight off my shoulders. I did not want to have to go home tonight,” Anderson said. “So we’ll be able to play at least two more games, we want to play three, and a win feels a lot better than a loss does.”

The season is over for Wilson, but Cocke’ had plenty of praise for how the Rams grew together as a team over the course of the year — especially in the frenetic two-week run to the Tacoma Dome.

“We are heading in the right direction,” he said. “I think it took (dang) near the entire season for these guys to trust us, to trust each other. It’s different, I’m a different coach and a different expectation level.

“They fought that for a long time, but I really felt like this last couple weeks they came together and really accomplished something – they made it back to the Dome (without) a Division I guy on the roster. I’m pretty proud of them for that.”

TEAM STATISTICS

W – Shooting: 18 of 61 (29.5 percent). Free throws: 3 of 7 (42.9). Turnovers: 5.

K – Shooting: 20 of 46 (43.5 percent). Free throws: 16 of 24 (66.7). Turnovers: 9.

INDIVIDUAL SCORING

W – Emani Mitchell 4, Daniel Santana 5, Dominique Ellison 8, Kiwanis Thomas 11, Adam Maxon 7, Malik Howard 4, Jerome Smith 3.

K – Josh Webb 2, Riley Noah 17, Shaw Anderson 27, Drew Tack 2, Wyatt Brown 9, Saxon Hickey 2.