Mount Tahoma, which ran through 3A PCL undefeated, one win away from Tacoma Dome appearance
When Jason Townsend took over the Mount Tahoma High School boys basketball program eight years ago, people laughed.
“You’ll never win there,” they told him. “You won’t get the players.”
In the Tacoma hoops scene, Lincoln, Foss and Silas (formerly Wilson) have been the top dogs in the recent past. Life Christian, a private school playing in Class 1A, has snuck into the conversation’s of Tacoma’s best the past few years, too. Bellarmine Prep, a private school which plays in Class 4A, has also fielded some good teams over the years.
Mount Tahoma, though, is often an afterthought locally. The players on this year’s T-Birds team feel that disrespect. They take it personally. It made this year’s undefeated 12-0 run through the 3A Pierce County League that much sweeter. Mount Tahoma beat all of its Tacoma Public Schools rivals: Lincoln, Silas and Stadium. The T-Birds also posted non-league wins over Foss and Life Christian.
“We take it really personal,” said senior guard Ryan Tran, who’s averaging 12.6 points this season. “Mount Tahoma back then wasn’t really good. We haven’t been this good since like 2006. It feels good to make history for Mount Tahoma.”
The 3A Pierce County League title is Mount Tahoma’s first league championship since 2004, when the T-Birds won the now defunct Narrows League. Townsend has blocked out the nay-sayers and has just focused on winning with the basketball players that come into his program.
“I just stayed the course,” he said. “As far as transfers, guys coming in and out — these are all the guys that have been here. They’ve been through the good times, been through the bad times. It just means a lot to me inside because they work hard. They’ve got the social media and see all the stuff that says, ‘You guys aren’t very good.’ For them to persevere, win the league and beat the Tacoma teams … it made me feel really good for them. It still feels like we’re not finished, of course. But I’ll take that league title any day of the week.”
Asjon Anderson has been at the center of Mount Tahoma’s resurgence the past few years. The senior guard has put together his best season yet this winter, averaging 31.5 points per game. He scored 50 points in a win over Stadium on Feb. 2 and has multiple games over 40 points this season. Anderson deflected credit to his teammates, when asked about his monster statistical season.
“Just getting my guys more involved, making sure everyone else is getting a feel for the game, too,” he said.
Townsend said Anderson’s eye-popping stats are the product of a lot of behind-the-scenes work.
“Maturity, more than anything,” Townsend said. “Being able to read defenses a little better. He works on his game daily, he’s a gym rat. He’s at every open gym, playing wherever he can. He just wants to play against the best players, all the time. I think in addition to his maturity and his body growing and filling out, his athletic ability got better. He’s just a gym rat and works on his game every day.”
Two years ago in the 2020 Class 3A state tournament regional round, Mount Tahoma was one win away from reaching the Tacoma Dome, but fell to Marysville-Getchell, 54-51. Anderson didn’t have his best game and took it personally.
“It was a tough loss and it’s just been sitting with me since and I don’t want to be in that same predicament,” he said.
After the loss, Anderson approached Townsend with a promise.
“He told me, ‘Coach, I won’t let that happen again,’” Townsend recalled. “He gave up a couple things, missed a couple shots. He took that game as his motivation as a sophomore, which propelled him to just continue to work on his game, work on his defense, just trying to be better at everything else, not just scoring.”
Anderson will have a chance to redeem himself, along with the rest of his teammates who were also on the team two years ago. Again, Mount Tahoma finds itself in the same position: the T-Birds face Eastside Catholic on Friday night at 8 p.m. at Foss High School in the 3A state tournament regional round. The loser goes home, while the winner earns a trip to the Tacoma Dome.
Anderson grew up watching state tournament games in the Tacoma Dome, watching his older brother, Tre, play for Rainier Beach (Seattle). He wants that same experience and fans should expect to see Anderson dialed in on Friday night.
“They should expect me to lead my team to this win so that we can go to the Dome,” he said.
