Curtis dominates from the tip against Tahoma to win district title, 77-56
Just before the fourth quarter of Curtis’ Class 4A District 3/4 high school boys basketball championship game began, the Curtis public address announcer called to the packed gym: The Curtis boys swim team had just won the 4A state title minutes earlier. The Curtis girls wrestling team also made headlines, taking third place at this weekend’s Mat Classic.
And the boys basketball team did its part, jumping out to an early lead against Tahoma and never looking back, winning the district title — the program’s first since 2013 — convincingly, 77-56.
Not a bad day to be a Viking.
“It’s exciting,” said Curtis sophomore guard Zoom Diallo, who scored a game-high 21 points in the win. “When you come to Curtis, these are the expectations. It’s real good that we came out, played hard. That was one of the goals, for sure.”
Curtis raced out to a 22-8 lead on back-to-back 3-pointers from Tyce Paulsen in the first quarter and the outcome was never seriously threatened from that point on, the Vikings keeping the Bears at a safe distance for the rest of the contest. While Tahoma got strong outings from Carson Talbert (19 points) and Adam Davis (15 points), the Bears weren’t able to string enough stops together to ever close the gap as much as it needed.
Curtis’ offense is firing on all cylinders at the perfect time of year, heading into the state tournament at the Tacoma Dome in the first week of March.
“It all starts with defense,” said Cinque Maxwell, who scored 19 points for the Vikings. “Defense is the most important part. We get a lot of fast breaks and all that and that really opens up the game.”
Defenses key on Diallo and Paulsen, but Maxwell remains the unsung hero of this team. He has an uncanny ability to float along the baseline, put himself in good positions and score layup after layup, often uncontested.
“It’s just movement,” Maxwell said. “No one expects like a 6-1, technically big man, to be moving around the paint and moving down there and being aggressive down there. You’ve just gotta keep moving. They don’t really watch me down there, because they don’t expect that.”
Curtis coach Tim Kelly credits Maxwell’s basketball IQ with his ability, which is difficult to describe. He just always seems to be open under the hoop.
“He’s real smart,” Kelly said. “He’s very intelligent. He’s an intelligent kid, one, but he’s an intelligent basketball player. He finds places where to get open. Being 6-1, he plays everybody’s bigs. For two years, you just look at him and I’m sure people look at him and they’re like ‘Who’s that guy?’ And he ends the night and he’s averaging 15 and getting eight, nine rebounds. I attribute a lot of it to smarts and finding the right place. He doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. You tell him one thing, you don’t have to tell him twice. He picks up on things quickly.”
This winter will be the first opportunity for this core of Curtis players to get a crack at the state tournament in the Tacoma Dome together. Of the five starters, only Trent Williams is a senior. This group was ahead of schedule last year, meeting Olympia in the 4A SPSL championship game in the final game of the season (the state tournament was canceled because of the pandemic).
They’re eager to show the state what they can do.
“It’s exciting,” Diallo said. “We’ve been talking about it ever since I came in my freshman year. That’s been one of our goals. The fact that we have the chance to play in it this year, we’re very excited. It’s a blessing. A lot of teams, their season is over. We’re one of those few teams to go to state.”
Tim Kelly, as is tradition with the head coach, was the last person to climb the ladder and cut the net down after his team won the tournament on Saturday night. It’s a safe bet that his longtime friend and assistant coach Mark Williams was on his mind, as he has been constantly the past 24 hours.
The two coached together for nearly three decades. Williams graduated from Washington High School in 1977, and was an assistant at Fife and at Lincoln, where he coached alongside Kelly for 14 years before joining Kelly at Curtis. In July 2012, he was inducted into the Washington Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Williams died on Friday afternoon after a battle with cancer.
“It’s been a tough 24 hours. Yesterday morning, he called us, my wife and I. He wanted to talk to us early in the morning and say goodbye,” said Kelly, voice breaking and fighting through tears. “He was here last Saturday and he was all about doing what we do, wanted to see us win, get to state and win a state championship. That’s what he talked about.”
Williams’ wife, Julie, was in attendance at Saturday’s game. Curtis athletic director Suzanne Vick brought her a vase of flowers after a moment of silence from the crowd.
“I’m glad his family came today,” Kelly said. “I thought it was very cool Julie was here. A lot of ex-players were here, both Lincoln and Curtis. A lot of people cared and showed up and I’m really appreciative of that.”
This story was originally published February 20, 2022 at 12:09 AM.
