Game recaps, highlights from the 2024 King Showcase high school basketball tournament
There will be eight high school basketball games played at the 2023 King Showcase on Monday at the ShoWare Center in Kent.
The event honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. features five boys basketball games and three girls basketball games, and includes teams at the Class 4A, 3A, 2A and 1A levels from the South Sound and beyond.
Follow along for live updates throughout the day.
SCHEDULE
9 a.m. — Kent-Meridian vs. Enumclaw (Boys)
10:30 a.m. — Puyallup vs. Auburn Mountainview (Boys)
Noon — White River vs. King’s (Girls)
2 p.m. — Lynden vs. King’s (Boys)
3:30 p.m. — Kennedy Catholic vs. Enumclaw (Girls)
5 p.m. — Mount Si vs. Roosevelt (Boys)
7 p.m. — Tahoma vs. Olympia (Boys)
8:30 p.m. — Tahoma vs. Liberty of Issaquah (Girls)
GAME RECAPS
ENUMCLAW 36, KENT-MERIDAN 34
Enumclaw didn’t lead until Jason Feddema stole an in-bounds pass and fed Wyatt Neu for a breakaway layup with 1:10 left in the third quarter on Monday. The Hornets didn’t lead for good until Karson Holt hit with 4:48 to play in the game.
But Enumclaw managed to escape with a 36-34 victory over Kent-Meridian in the first game of the King Showcase at Kent’s ShoWare Center honoring Martin Luther King.
The Royals scored the game’s first eight points and led 10-2 with 3:07 to go in the first quarter on Joel Remos’ only field goal of the game. Julius Graham converted a three-point play, part of his game-high 16 points, for Kent-Meridian with 23 seconds to go in the third to give the Royals the lead back.
Trailing 32-29, Neu (who also had 16 points) made a three-pointer with 5:34 to go in the game to tie things at 32-32, and Karson Holt gave the Hornets (8-5) the lead for good with his bucket with 4:48 to play as Enumclaw held Kent-Meridian (6-8) to just two points in the fourth quarter.
AUBURN MOUNTAINVIEW 59, PUYALLUP 47
Sebastian Arius got hot early from beyond the three-point arc as Auburn Mountainview pulled away from a close game in the first quarter to earn a 59-47 victory over Puyallup in the second game at the King Showcase.
Arius made his first four three-pointers, all from far behind the line, in the first half as the Lions (8-6) extended a three-point advantage to a game-high 16 points at 31-15 on his final make of the half with 3:08 to go in the second quarter. Arius took that shot from midway between the center circle and the top of the key, holding the follow-through pose as the shot flew and hit nothing but the net on its way through.
Arius finished with a game-high 20 points, made five of eight three-pointers overall, and contributed seven rebounds and four assists as the named player of the game. The Vikings (10-6) made one run to get back within seven, 42-35, on a Mason Sonntag layup with 1:25 left in the third quarter.
It was as close as Puyallup would get the rest of the way. Justin Temple scored 12 points and had four rebounds to lead the Vikings.
KING’S 52, WHITE RIVER 49 (OT)
King’s turned a big deficit into a bigger comeback on Monday at the ShoWare Center in Kent. The 1A Knights girls, who’ve played one of the toughest nonleague schedules imaginable, finally turned one of those difficult matchups into a win.
King’s erased a 10-point deficit to 2A White River in the fourth quarter and went on to a 52-49 victory, handing the Hornets just their second loss of the season.
“We’ve definitely been playing some bigger schools and bigger teams,” sophomore guard Kaleo Anderson said. “I think that will help us in the state tournament.”
The Knights (7-8) have losses to 4A and unbeaten Sumner, 3A schools in Arlington, Meadowdale and Roosevelt, and 2A Lynden, the only other team to beat White River (10-2) this season. And after three quarters on Monday, it looked as though King’s would add another “good” loss to the total.
Instead, the Knights held the Hornets to just two points in the fourth quarter, completely erasing a 43-33 deficit after three quarters. The fourth belonged offensively to Kaitlin Cramer, who scored eight of her 17 points for King’s in the fourth.
Most of the rest of the contest belonged to Anderson. The 6-footer scored all nine of King’s points in the third quarter and tallied a game-high 20 points and 13 rebounds overall.
Cramer’s final three, a 3-pointer with 3:42 to go in overtime, gave the Knights the lead in overtime. Anderson scored with 2:44 to go to extend the margin to three again, 50-47, and she made two free throws with three seconds left to ice it.
LYNDEN 64, KING’S 39
The Lynden boys did trail in their King Showcase contest on Monday. Dylan Myers made an early 3-pointer that staked King’s to a 3-2 lead less than two minutes into the game at the ShoWare Center.
That shot was the highwater mark for the Knights, though. By the end of the first eight minutes the Lions were up by 16. Lynden extended the margin every quarter after en route to an easy 64-39 nonleague victory.
Lynden shot 53 percent from behind the 3-point arc, making 10 of 19 overall. Anthony Canales scored 22 points and grabbed six rebounds to lead the Lions (11-3). Myers made four 3-pointers and scored a team-high 15 to pace King’s (9-5).
ENUMCLAW 58, KENNEDY CATHOLIC 35
The two girls teams that didn’t find out until this weekend they would even be playing on Monday met in the fifth game of the King Showcase and the 2A Enumclaw Hornets got the better end of the deal.
Game 5 originally scheduled pitted Bonney Lake against a defending state champion from Oregon, Clackamas. The cold snap that has gripped the Northwest this week prevented the Cavaliers from getting out of the Portland area, however.
Enumclaw stepped in. When the Hornets did so, Bonney Lake stepped out. The Panthers and Enumclaw already played this season, with Bonney Lake winning a 62-29 non-conference game on Nov. 29.
That move meant 4A Kennedy Catholic stepped in on Sunday morning, agreeing to play Enumclaw in what became a 58-35 Enumclaw victory.
The Hornets (8-5) raced to a 21-9 lead after one quarter, got their advantage trimmed to 10, 34-24, at the half before cruising past the Lancers (5-9).
Four players scored eight or more points in a balanced scoring effort from Enumclaw. Gracie Finoess was the only Hornet in double figures at 11 points. Riley Burns led all scorers for Kennedy with 17 points to go with her five rebounds.
MOUNT SI 63, ROOSEVELT 38
The substitutes brought with them some stellar early-season credentials. Roosevelt’s Roughriders came into their unexpected King Showcase opportunity with 13 victories overall, 10-0 in the 3A Metro League and ranked amongst the top 10 in 3A in Washington.
They got shown just how large the gap is between such credentials and the top ranked team in 4A as Mount Si, a state semifinalist 10 months ago, scored 20 first-quarter points to build a double-digit lead and run away with a 63-38 victory at the Showare Center on Monday evening.
The Wildcats (13-2) were scheduled to play Tualatin, the defending Oregon 6A state champion. The Timberwolves, however, like the Clackamas girls who were also supposed to be at this tournament, couldn’t get out of Portland due to the harshly cold weather that has gripped the area.
Roosevelt (13-3) stepped in at the last minute this weekend.
“We were just really excited to play,” Mount Si coach Jason Griffith said. “We were supposed to play Bellevue on Friday. That got cancelled. We’re trying to reschedule it. Roosevelt stepped up for us. They’re 13-2 for a reason.”
Mount Si dominated the pace, used its superior quickness and speed, and led by as many as 35 points before Griffith cleared his bench for the final three minutes as Roosevelt outscored the Wildcats 10-9 in the fourth quarter.
Latt Ford scored 21 and Trevor Hennig added 20 for Mount Si. Hennig added a game-high eight rebounds on a night when his sharp-shooting partner in the back court, Blake Forrest, struggled from the field. Forrest made just one of seven shots and had only two points. But he had five assists and ran the show, getting his teammates opportunities.
TAHOMA 71, OLYMPIA 43
Olympia couldn’t find the basket early, missed its first 13 shots, fell behind Tahoma by as many as 34 points and never could fully recover in a runaway Tahoma victory.
Olympia made only one field goal in the first quarter, going 1-for-17 overall and 0-for-7 from behind the three-point line. By the time Oly found the range, the visiting Bears were 3-for-27. They finished the first half at 6-for-30 to shoot just 20 percent over the first 16 minutes.
Still, Tahoma led this one at the break by just 10 points, 32-22. That was because Olympia, who began the game just 3-for-8 from the stripe, as well, ended up making its final eight from the line to make up at least partially for the poor field goal shooting.
Olympia (9-4) twice got the deficit to eight points, 32-24 and 34-26, early in the third quarter before Tahoma (11-4) raced away over the last half of the third and into the fourth quarter. This was a matchup of top 10 4A teams, with the most recent WIAA RPI rankings putting Olympia at No. 2 and Tahoma at No. 5 in 4A.
Tahoma’s 28-point margin of victory tied the total of Olympia’s previous three losses this season combined. Dalton Brown led four Tahoma players in double figures with 21 points. Adam Davis added a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Matt Lindbloom’s eight points and nine rebounds paced Olympia.
TAHOMA 72, LIBERTY 48
The Bears girls completed the doubleheader sweep to close the Showcase, following Tahoma’s boys victory with blowout win over the Patriots.
Leading just 16-13 as the first quarter was ending, Tahoma scored before the buzzer to take an 18-13 lead after eight minutes. That basket turned into a 12-0 run that finally ended when Addison Tran made the second of two free throws for Liberty with 3:13 to go in the second quarter, with Tahoma leading it 28-14.
The Patriots closed the first half on a 7-4 mini-run of their own, going to the locker room at the half with the Bears holding a 32-21 lead. That advantage extended to more than 30 in the fourth quarter before coach Julie Anderson cleared her bench, playing all 14 girls in uniform.
Tahoma got 15 points from Brooke Deyak in a balanced attack that saw five players score at least seven points. Ella Whitaker had a game-high 24 points, six rebounds and three steals to lead all scorers for Liberty.
This story was originally published January 15, 2024 at 1:39 PM.