Penner’s stellar outside shooting lifts Capital to first Tacoma Dome win since 1996

How big was Capital High School’s 48-41 victory over West Seattle in the first round of the Class 3A state tournament on Wednesday night at the Tacoma Dome?

For starters, none of the Cougars players were born when their school last won a game at the state tournament site. That came in 1996, when Capital finished seventh.

“This is a huge win for our program,” said coach Brian Vandiver, who was a volunteer assistant with the 1995-96 team. “I’m not sure outside of our fans, too many people thought we could do it, but our kids believed they could.”

Senior guard Chris Penner got Capital (21-4) started with a pair of 3-pointers for a 6-0 run that didn’t last long. In the fourth quarter, Penner took over, scoring half of his game-high 26 points as the Cougars survived squandering a 10-point lead.

“A lot of people can’t shoot in the Dome. Hitting those two boosted my confidence right away,” Penner said. “I knew it was going to be a fun night.”

Grant Erickson also reached double figures for Capital with 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Nuh’Losi Roberson topped the Wildcats (17-9) with 17 points and Abdullah Mohamed added 11.

Penner had told Vandiver after the Cougars shoot-around earlier in the day that his shot felt good. After some nervous play by both teams in the first minute and a half, he hit two of his six 3-pointers on the night back-to-back from the top of the key.

“When Chris gets going, it’s magical,” Vandiver said. “He has nights where he can completely control a basketball game.”

West Seattle, the higher seed out of the storied Metro League, came back to grab the lead for the first time, 13-12, in the final minute of the first quarter on a Mohamed free throw, and stretched its edge to 17-12 early in the second by virtue of a 7-0 run.

But Penner, as so often happened on the night, had the next word, regaining the lead for Capital, 19-18, on another triple at the 1:32 mark of the second quarter.

The Cougars went into halftime leading by three, and stretched it to their largest lead of the night, 33-23, late in the third quarter.

“I still knew it was going to come down to the wire,” Penner said. “Even if we’d have been down 10, I would have thought it would come down to the wire.”

West Seattle then played its best ball of the night, striking back with a lightning 11-0 run to retake the lead on a tip-in of his own miss by Roberson, 34-33.

But Penner nailed a 3-pointer from the left wing, he drove for a layup, then closed out the game with a triple and a pair of free throws.

“I didn’t want to go home. I didn’t want to be done,” he said. “I kind of just felt it. I can’t explain it.”

The Cougars won’t be going home, they’ll have another 9 p.m. game in Thursday night’s quarterfinals, against No. 2 Mount Spokane (23-1).

TEAM STATISTICS

C – Shooting: 16 of 38 (42.1 percent). Free throws: 10 of 12 (83.3). Turnovers: 6.

WS – Shooting: 15 of 46 (32.6 percent). Free throws: 7 of 13 (53.8). Turnovers: 7.

INDIVIDUAL SCORING

C – Gabe Landers 8, Chris Penner 26, Brandin Riedel 2, Grant Erickson 10, Jake Brandsma 2, Duncan McDermott 1.

WS – Sage Nelson 2, Roman Barnet 6, Nuh’Kosi Roberson 17, Abdullah Mohamed 6, Maar Rambang 2, Vladimer Salaridze 3.

This story was originally published February 27, 2019 at 11:42 PM.