Wilson comes out angry, beats Marysville-Getchell in 3A state tournament opening round, 73-52
There’s coming out strong, and then there’s what the Wilson boys basketball team did in its Class 3A opening round state tournament game at the Tacoma Dome against Marysville-Getchell on Wednesday morning: The Rams came out angry.
Disappointed with their performance last Friday in a regional round loss to O’Dea, Wilson took out some of that frustration on the Chargers on Wednesday, jumping out a 39-14 halftime lead and coming away with a 73-52 win to advance to the quarterfinal round on Thursday, with a matchup against No. 1 Eastside Catholic next.
“We had to bring the energy from the start,” said Wilson’s Malik Howard, who scored 12 points in the win. “That’s where it all starts. We could’ve won that game against O’Dea. All the energy was from that loss. We felt like our personnel and our team could’ve taken the (win). It didn’t happen, but we just came out today, put our anger on the court and took the (win).”
Wilson coach Mike Cocke echoed those sentiments, while also saying the Rams just wanted to play up to their standards.
“We’re a good team,” Cocke said. “I’m not going to say we’re better than this team or that team, but I think we’re better than what we showed against O’Dea. We just constantly reminded these guys that this is a loser-out game. So I think that was the mindset you saw and the hunger.”
Malakhi Knight had 29 points for the Chargers and Josiah Koellmer scored 14, but the rest of the Chargers combined for just nine points. And even Knight and Koellmer’s production came on 16-of-43 shooting (37.2 percent) from the field.
“I thought we did a good job to stay within the gameplan, on their two guys,” Cocke said. “Our guys did a really good job taking those two away.”
Wilson, as it does in most of its game, looked to speed Getchell up and take the Chargers out of their comfort zone.
“Speeding them up wasn’t hard,” Howard said. “It was the gameplan from the jump.”
Dominique Ellison led the Rams with 13 points. Howard and Jackson Dorsey scored 12 apiece, while Cayden McDaniel added nine, Emeani Mitchell scored eight and Damani Green had six points.
Up next: Another Metro matchup, this time against No. 1 seeded Eastside Catholic.
“We see it as a chance to play a Metro team, a good team,” Cocke said. “We know what they’ve done and who they are. You know if you want to go compete in this thing, you’ve got to beat good teams. So we’ll just try to fly around, take away some of the things they like to do, get to some of the things we like to do and play with the same effort we did tonight.”
RAINIER BEACH 61, EVERGREEN (VANCOUVER) 52
They might as well just rename this year’s boys basketball Class 3A state tournament quarterfinals the “Metro Invitational.” With Rainier Beach’s win over Evergreen (Vancouver) on Wednesday, all four quarterfinal games will feature at least one team from the 3A Metro League, with Rainier Beach joining No. 7 O’Dea, No. 4 Garfield, and No. 1 Eastside Catholic, which all had byes into the quarterfinals. In the subsequent game, Metro peer Seattle Prep also punched its ticket into the quarterfinal round with a 74-50 win over Mount Spokane.
Rainier Beach held on as Evergreen made a run late in the second half, led by Zyell Griffin, who scored 19 points in the loss.
But Rainier Beach held on for the win, paced by Kejohn Atkins’ 16 points. John Hart added 10. The Vikings shot 40.4 percent from the field and 80 percent from the free throw line, making 16-of-20 attempts from the charity stripe. Beach forced Evergreen into 15 turnovers.
HOT-SHOOTING SEATTLE PREP MAKES IT FIVE FOR 3A METRO
Seattle Prep became the fifth team from the Metro League to punch its ticket to the state tournament quarterfinal round with a resounding 74-50 victory over Mount Spokane.
The Panthers put on a shooting clinic, shooting 59.1% (26-44) from the field and 55.6% (10-18) from 3-point range. Braeden Smith scored a team-high 20 points in the win and five Panthers scored in double digits.
Mount Spokane 6-foot-7 center Tyson Degenhart, a Boise State commit, was plenty productive, scoring 21 points on 9-of-15 shooting, also hauling in seven rebounds.
This story was originally published March 4, 2020 at 12:54 PM.
