Raquiza’s late three lifts Gig Harbor over Capital on road, 50-47

Asher Raquiza is confident he can knock down three-point baskets from well beyond the arc. He just needs to be warmed up.

With 31 of 32 minutes history Friday night, the 6-foot-1 Gig Harbor High School guard was plenty warm when he got the ball in front of the Tides bench at Capital’s gym. Without hesitation, he launched a shot that broke a tie, eventually sending the Tides home with a 50-47 victory that kept them alone in first place in the 3A South Sound Conference.

Gig Harbor is 10-2 in league. Capital falls to third at 8-4. Central Kitsap which beat Peninsula, 78-69, is now alone in second at 9-3.

“Everybody was kind of out of position. I caught the ball a foot or two off the three-point line and the guy wasn’t really on me,” said Raquiza. “I said ‘I’m going to do this for my team, we’ve got to win this game. No doubts, I’m going to make it.’”

Raquiza’s shot proved to be the game winner, but the contest was far from over when it went through the net.

Capital took a timeout with 55 seconds to play, but quickly turned the ball over, leading to a pair of free throws for Gig Harbor freshman Christian Parrish, who didn’t get either to fall.

Cougars’ coach Brian Vandiver screamed for a timeout as his team brought the ball into the front court, but it wasn’t granted until just 6.7 seconds remained. When Gig Harbor coach Billy Landram got a look at the Cougars’ pre-inbound set – four players lined up level with the top of the key with the ball set to come in from the left sideline – he took a timeout of his own.

Coming out in the same formation, Capital inbounded to Spencer Halstead, who missed a three from out top at the buzzer.

Zach Toglia led the Tides with 13 points, while Raquiza totaled 12 and Parrish nine. Capital’s high-low senior post combination of 6-7 Brandin Riedel and 6-3 Jake Brandsma did most of the damage for the Cougars.

Riedel finished with 23 points and Brandsma 12 as the pair connected several times on effective post-to-post passes.

The last time the teams met, in Gig Harbor on January 8, the Tides rolled, 54-34. There wasn’t a hint of that type of dominance this time.

“They had home crowd hype and Riedel had an amazing game,” Raquiza said. “Their point guard (Halstead) is a great distributor. They’re a well-rounded team, tough to beat.”

Riedel’s stat line included a high number of blocked shots as well as scoring.

“We have won a lot of tough games,” said Landram. “It’s a credit to the kids sticking with it, doing a lot of the little things well.

“Playing on the road is hard. Capital played with a lot more grit this time. They knocked us around. They came to play. They were very deliberate in what they were trying to do and it was effective.”

Gig Harbor started and finished the game dialed in from long range. The Tides grabbed an 18-12 lead after a quarter as four different players – Parrish, Toglia, Raquiza and Nathan Brekke connected from beyond the arc.

Scoring the first three points of the second quarter, Gig Harbor took the largest lead either team would have all night, 21-12, when Raquiza sank one of two free throws a minute into the period.

But Capital, backed by that noisy home crowd perhaps made smaller by a number of fans making their way across the Narrows Bridge to watch a similar showdown for the 3A SSC lead between the schools’ girls teams, went to work and tied it at 23-23 on a short corner jumper by Brandsma off an assist from Clayton Grady.

Riedel gave the Cougars the lead when he cut to the basket and finished off a Halstead assist to make it 25-24, with 25 seconds to go before intermission. But Gig Harbor’s Joe Owens swished a three from the right corner in front of Capital’s bench to send the Tides in with a 27-25 edge.

Gig Harbor held a six-point lead, 35-29, midway through the third, but again Capital bounced back, nudging ahead 37-35 on a long two-pointer by Brandsma with a minute and a half left.

After that, the lead would change hands five more times until Raquiza’s trey with a minute to go settled the issue. For the fifth time in league play, the Tides won by five or fewer points.

“That was a big win for us,” Raquiza said. “All season, it’s been super, super close in the last two minutes of so many of our games.”

Gig Harbor has two games remaining in SSC play, at home against teams with losing records, Yelm and Peninsula, but the Tides won’t be overconfident heading into them: The “2” in their 10-2 league marks comes courtesy of back-to-back losses to the Tornados, 75-57, and Seahawks, 59-36, three weeks ago.

This story was originally published January 31, 2020 at 10:28 PM.