Gig Harbor crawls out of early hole, but falls short in 65-60 quarterfinal loss to Rainier Beach
The Gig Harbor High School boys basketball team dug itself out of an early hole against Rainier Beach in the Class 3A state tournament quarterfinal round at the Tacoma Dome on Thursday afternoon, but couldn’t get the stops it needed in the fourth quarter, falling 65-60.
Rainier Beach led by 12 at one point early on, Gig Harbor looking somewhat overwhelmed from the tip.
“I think we were a little starry eyed, we were on our heels from the start,” said Gig Harbor coach Billy Landram. “Beach got to play yesterday, so they were a little more used to the environment. But we battled back and had our chances.”
For much of the first half, Gig Harbor forward Luke Browne was single-handedly carrying the Tides offense, knocking down shots from behind the arc. He finished with 18 points for the Tides and knocked down 4-of-9 shots from 3-point range in the loss.
“Just preparation, being prepared for the moment and coming with the right mental mindset, being ready to shoot at all times,” Browne said of his effort.
Landram said Browne isn’t fazed by the moment.
“He’s a really good player,” Landram said. “He does not get rattled by situations, pressure, anything like that. So this moment was not going to be too big for him. He literally carried us the whole first half. He can hit shots. We’re trying to get him the ball as much as we can, usually the other team is trying to stop him at every opportunity.”
Gig Harbor outscored Rainier Beach 17-12 in the third quarter and had the game tied in the fourth, but the Vikings outscored the Tides 18-11 in the final period and shot 55.1 percent from the field in the win.
“It was tough,” Browne said. “We started a little slow but we’re a bunch of fighters. We pride ourselves on coming back from stuff like that. It was a super back and forth game and it just came down to who made a couple of shots at the end.”
Gig Harbor guard Will Landram managed to score a game-high 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field, despite playing on an injured ankle. Landram never quite looked at full strength throughout the contest and appeared to re-aggravate the injury in the fourth quarter.
“I don’t know,” said Billy Landram, Will’s dad. “He’s so excited to play in the Dome and you’re not going to sit out when you get that chance. We’d rather be at full strength, but he fought. What’s the alternative?”
Rainier Beach was led by Nahmier Robinson (Nate Robinson’s son) and Jaelin Green, who scored 15 points apiece. Myles Daymon and Josh Conerly Jr. scored 11 points each.
Rainier Beach will face the winner of the Mount Spokane vs. Mountlake Terrace game in Friday’s semifinal round, while Gig Harbor will face the loser of that game in the consolation bracket at 10:30 a.m. on Friday.
