Cut down the nets: Enumclaw beats rival White River in regular season finale

As the ladders came out and got set up under the nets, the Enumclaw Hornets cheered. It didn’t matter that the opportunity to cut down the nets after a 2A South Puget Sound League title existed before Enumclaw ever stepped on the court for its regular-season finale against rival White River.

Enumclaw went into the last game of the season with a two-game lead over second-place Foss.

“We still wanted to win,” said Noah Seabrands, one of three seniors honored on Senior Night. “Coach told us we could only cut down the nets if we won.”

So Enumclaw won, beating White River 58-52 in a game whose outcome remained in question until the final 14 seconds.

It was with those 14 ticks left on the clock that Landon Brauer stepped to the line and buried two free throws to put Enumclaw (18-2 overall, 15-1 SPSL) up by four points, 56-52. Those two makes put the visiting Hornets into desperation mode.

Rylen Ramos threw up an off-balance 3-pointer with seven seconds left that wasn’t close. Seabrands rebounded and was fouled. He made both free throws with six seconds remaining and the game was done.

“We know they are a good team,” Enumclaw coach Terry Johnson said. “And we played so well the first time. People look at scores and we really don’t.”

Looking at the score of that first meeting, Enumclaw ran away from White River, 68-46. On Friday night, it looked like things might get out of hand yet again.

But despite falling into a 12-2 hole over the first four minutes of the game, trailing 16-7 after one quarter – a quarter in which White River had as many turnovers (7) as points (7) – the visiting Hornets (11-8, 10-6) made this one more than interesting down the stretch.

White River made four 3-pointers to start the second quarter and rolled off a 14-0 run to take a 21-16 lead on Ramos’s third basket from long distance with 5:30 to play in the first half. Enumclaw still pushed back to take a 28-23 lead at the half.

Ramos finished with a team-high 14 points for White River, which stormed back again late in the third and actually forged a 43-42 lead heading into the final eight minutes. The fourth quarter, though, belonged to Seabrands in his final regular season game.

Seabrands scored nine of his 18 points in the final quarter, including the 3-pointer with 2:07 remaining that put Enumclaw ahead for good, 54-52.

“I didn’t know I had that many (points),” Seabrands said. “We’ve got really good shooters like Carter DeRosier and guys made the good passes.”

DeRosier actually led all scorers with 19 points, also playing his final regular season home game for Enumclaw along with wing Ty Hanson. Enumclaw is far from done playing, however. It will be the top seed from the SPSL to the 2A district playoffs that begin next week.

And Enumclaw will go into the playoffs off a big victory.

“It’s good for us to be heading into the playoffs off a close game,” Johnson said. “Not only that. A win against White River, who’s our big rival, and finding a way. It is nice to go in, but now we’re all 0-0. It starts over. We gotta get back to work next week and we know it will be a challenge, whoever we play.”

This story was originally published February 11, 2023 at 10:10 AM.