Game recaps, highlights from the quarterfinals of 4A and 3A state basketball tournaments
Between the Class 4A and 3A boys and girls state tournaments, 60 high school basketball games will be played in the Tacoma Dome this weekend. The News Tribune will be at all of them, providing game recaps, highlights, interviews, stats and more.
Follow along for live updates from Thursday’s quarterfinal round games.
CLASS 3A BOYS
No. 4 O’Dea 48, No. 3 Garfield 43
Down three with the final seconds winding down, Garfield never found an open look – pushing No. 4 O’Dea over its fierce league rival and into Friday’s 3A semifinals at the Tacoma Dome.
Senior forward Malcolm Clark dropped a game-high 17 points – including 10 straight points for O’Dea in a razor-thin fourth quarter – and the Fighting Irish avenged its title-game loss in a rematch of the 2023 3A championship game.
“Our (coaches) ran some great sets for us,” Clark said. “(Garfield was) playing some great defense, we just had to find the open spots.”
This was the fourth meeting of the season between 3A Metro contenders; O’Dea’s win Thursday evened the season series at two.
“We’ve gone back and forth all of the games,” Clark said. “It’s really competitive, they’re an amazing team. But we knew what they liked to do, we knew their shooters. They’re a great shooting team, so we had to get our hands high.”
O’Dea trailed, 36-35, with roughly four minutes to play, when Clark himself built an 8-0 run with a pair of buckets and four free throws.
Clark (5-9 FG) sank 7-of-8 free-throw attempts and posted a double-double with 17 points, 13 rebounds, and a block. O’Dea guard Brian Webster added 10 points.
Garfield’s Ishe Kanhukamwe paced the Bulldogs with 14 points, and O’Dea’s defense held Bulldogs star guard Legend Smiley to seven points on 3-of-12 shooting.
“(Legend’s) an amazing player,” Clark said. “He’s one of the best players out there. … You’ve got to put some emphasis on him.”
O’Dea meets a North Central-Rainier Beach winner Friday at the Tacoma Dome for a 3:45 p.m. tip.
No. 10 Rainier Beach 64, No. 8 North Central 53
Vikings center Dominik Robinson had a 17-point, 12-rebound double-double, and No. 10 Rainier Beach extended a late lead to fend off No. 8 North Central at the Tacoma Dome.
The 6-foot-9 senior was a perfect 6-for-6 from the field, helping Rainier Beach emerge in Thursday’s 3A quarterfinal that was tied after each of the first two quarters and within single-digits entirely until the fourth.
“We play in one of the toughest leagues out there,” Robinson said, a reference to the 3A Metro that featured four of the eight teams remaining in the 3A bracket, as of Thursday morning. “It was a struggle getting here. A big struggle. It felt great to get.”
Beach guard Nyale Robinson dropped 14 points with three assists and two rebounds on 4-of-14 shooting, including a third-quarter, buzzer-beating trey from the right corner that pushed the Vikings lead to six. Kaden Powers also scored 14 points with eight rebounds.
Rainier Beach stacked 25 points off turnovers.
“At halftime, we really locked in,” Robinson said. “We knew what we needed to do.”
No. 6 Mount Spokane 82, No. 5 Mountlake Terrace 58
Mount Spokane jumped all over Mountlake Terrace from the tip, scoring at will in an 82-58 statement win to advance to Friday’s 3A state semifinal round.
Guard Ryan Lafferty was unstoppable, putting together a nearly flawless shooting performance, scoring 27 points on 12-of-13 shooting from the field.
“Getting out fast was really big for us,” Lafferty said. “Especially first game playing in the Dome this year. Just getting used to it, getting a feel for it.”
Mount Spokane shot 64.2 percent from the field as a team in the win. Andrew Rayment added 19 points. In total, nine Wildcats found themselves on the scoresheet.
“We had to come out on top, come out on a good hot start,” said guard Bode Gardner, who was also a star football player for the Wildcats last fall. “I think with our coaching staff and just preparing a week to play a team, it’s hard to beat us.
“Our coaches watch an insane amount of film, do a great job with scouting and watching almost every game of their season. So we know what they’re gonna run, we know how to guard it and it works out for us pretty well.”
Zaveon Jones led the Hawks with a team-high 20 points. Guard Jaxon Dubiel added 14 in the loss.
Mount Spokane will face the winner of Lincoln and Eastside Catholic in the 3A state tournament semifinals on Friday.
No. 2 Eastside Catholic 58, No. 17 Lincoln (Tacoma) 51
The Abes gave the towering Crusaders a run for their money – but size and length alone lifted No. 2 Eastside Catholic to victory over No. 17 Lincoln (Tacoma) in Thursday’s 3A quarterfinals, ending the hometown Cinderella run at the Tacoma Dome.
Jacob Cofie, a 6-foot-10 senior and University of Virginia commit, led Eastside Catholic’s domination in the paint, posting a 19-point, 12-rebound double-double that pushes the Crusaders into Friday’s 3A state semifinals.
Lincoln jumped to early 5-0 and 11-4 leads in the first quarter, but Cofie proved too much to handle and Eastside Catholic eliminated the No. 17 Abes from title contention.
“We’re laser-focused,” Cofie said. “We came out slow but ended up getting the win, and that’s all that matters.
“We’re in the flow of things. We’re ready to go.”
Abes forward Omarion Boston kept Lincoln within striking distance, with a game-high 25 points, five rebounds, and two steals. He led both of his Tacoma Dome contests in scoring and was Lincoln’s true interior presence, able to navigate Eastside Catholic’s pair of big men listed at 6-foot-10 (Cofie and Yabi Aklog).
Boston scored the contest’s first five points and Lincoln built an early advantage when the Crusaders failed to find an offensive groove, but Cofie and Aklog soon took over.
Aklog posted 16 points, nine rebounds, and three blocks, and with the game tied at halftime, Eastside Catholic’s offense shifted into a two-man scoring spree inside with the sophomore center and Cofie.
“It’s hard to guard both of us,” Cofie said, referencing Aklog. “He balled out today. I’m proud of him.”
Cofie fell to the hardwood with roughly five minutes remaining in regulation – unquestionably Eastside Catholic’s worst-case scenario in a one-possession game. But he returned to action less than two minutes of game-clock later and will play in Friday’s semifinals against No. 6 Mount Spokane, he said.
“I’ll be all good tomorrow, for sure,” said Cofie. “Just cramps, that’s it.”
Cofie and Aklog were a combined 13-of-21 (62 percent) from the field.
Lincoln advanced to Thursday’s quarterfinals after knocking off top-seed Auburn in the Round of 12 on Wednesday, 60-56.
CLASS 4A GIRLS
No. 4 Sumner 54, No. 6 Bothell 52 (OT)
Trailing by as many as 15 points in both halves, the Spartans stormed back to finally tie the game at 44-44 with 2:38 left to play on the second of two step-back 3-pointers from sophomore Olivia Collins. Sumner then needed Adriana Perez to convert two free throws with six seconds remaining in regulation to send the game to overtime tied at 47-47.
Collins made another 3-pointer to begin overtime, the last of her 14 points, and turned things back to Kawehi Borden, whose free throws with 1:08 left proved the game winners.
“The grittiness of our team to just keep chipping away, chipping away,” Sumner coach Katie Hyppa said. “Ultimately, we knocked some big free throws down, knocked some big shots down.”
None of those shots were bigger than the two 3-pointers from Collins, whose first with 3:19 left in regulation and second with 2:38 to go sandwiched a layup from Bothell’s McKylee Hawkins, who shared game-high scoring honors with Sumner’s Borden with 19 points. Hawkins also had 17 rebounds, four assists and three steals.
“The second half, we got all this energy,” Collins said. “She (the Bothell defender) was always one step behind me.”
The Cougars built a double-digit lead while relying on its signature defense, holding the Spartans to just 18 percent shooting in the first half and only 15 points. Bothell took a 25-15 advantage to the locker room, and had extended the lead back to 15 points, 32-17, on two Hawkins free throws with 5:30 left in the third quarter.
“I don’t know if we’ve been down 15 and come back, ever, in my time at Sumner,” Hyppa said. “That shows a lot of grit in our kids. Hard work and honestly, their confidence.”
No. 1 Camas 64, No. 7 Tahoma 23
The top-seeded Papermakers bolted to an early lead and never allowed the Bears to establish any kind of offensive footing. Camas shot 54 percent from the field in the first half, scored 36 points and held Tahoma to just 10 points.
Staked to a 36-10 advantage at the half, the Papermakers began the third quarter with a 16-2 spurt to explode the lead to 53-13 and invoke the mercy of a running clock for the remainder of the contest. It was at that point that Camas coach Scott Thompson tapped his entire bench, which entered with three minutes remaining in the third quarter and played the rest of the game.
The win sets up a 3:45 p.m. 4A semifinal with Sumner on Friday. The game will be a rematch of the District 3/4 tournament semifinal won by Camas, 49-41, on February 14.
Addison Harris made eight of 13 shots, mostly all inside the lane, and scored a game-high 18 points in just two and a half quarters of play before she and the rest of the Papermakers starters went to the bench for good. She also had five rebounds.
No. 5 Davis 59, No. 3 Kamiakin 48
Turnabout is fair play, as far as Akil White figures.
“It’s funny, last year we beat them (during the regular season) and they went to the Final Four,” said White, the Pirates coach. “This year, they beat us and we are going. If you noticed, we were uber-focused at the start today. It’s not often you get another chance to beat a team that beat you.”
The Davis loss to the Braves came back on December 16, 51-44. Kamiakin never had the same chances on Thursday, though, as the Pirates got in front and built on the lead. Davis led 31-19 at the half, maintained that lead through the third quarter and never led by less than eight the entire second half.
As they did in the Round of 12, the dynamic duo of Esmeralda Galindo and Cheyenne Hull came up big. Galindo led all scorers with 29 points, making 13 of 19 field goal attempts while adding five rebounds and five steals. Hull added 14 points and eight boards.
“Our defense and our communication, we came out strong,” Hull said. “We were really aggressive.”
While it’s Hull’s first state appearance in Tacoma, she watched her sister Trista and LaSalle win a state title back in 2019 in Yakima. The first trip west to Tacoma has put Hull and the Pirates in position to duplicate the feat.
Davis will play Gonzaga Prep in the second 4A semifinal on Friday at 5:30 p.m.
“When I saw her win, I was like, we’re going to go win,” Hull said of her sister’s team. “We’re both going to win state.”
Emanuii Smith had a double-double to pace Kamiakin with 14 points and 10 rebounds. She came within three assists of the tournament’s first triple double with seven assists.
No. 8 Gonzaga Prep 50, No. 2 Woodinville 44
For much of the game, it looked like the Falcons would be held under 40 points for the first time in six seasons. The five quick points scored in the final 30 seconds pushed Woodinville past the 39-point mark that it tallied against Central Valley in the championship game on March 3, 2018 (a 70-39 loss).
But it didn’t change the outcome in Thursday’s quarterfinal against the Bullpups.
That’s because, though Woodinville led this one at the half, 21-16, the Falcons made only one shot in the third quarter as Gonzaga Prep turned that five-point deficit into a 34-25 lead entering the fourth quarter. Percentage-wise, Woodinville still shot better than the Bullpups – 30 percent to 28.3 percent – from the field.
It was at the free throw line where things went south. Woodinville made just seven of 19 from the line while Gonzaga Prep made 22 of 33 attempts from the stripe.
“It was quantity over quality,” Bullpups coach Geoff Arte said.
Gonzaga Prep advances to face Davis in an all-Eastern Washington semifinal at 5:30 p.m. on Friday. Woodinville plays to get into a trophy game against Kamiakin at 10:30 a.m.
Jaecy Stephens Eggers led all scorers for the Falcons with 17 points to go with nine rebounds. The Bullpups had three in double figures scoring, led by Olivia McIntyre and Aylah Cornwall with 14 points each. Cornwall added 12 rebounds.
CLASS 4A BOYS
No. 5 Davis 75, No. 11 Skyview 69
Davis and Skyview went back and forth for three quarters, but Davis pulled away in the fourth, showing poise that comes from having an experienced, tested group.
“We’ve been here two years already, so being here definitely helps with the experience, just knowing how the game is going to be played and just executing off of that,” said Davis guard Cesar Hernandez. “The teams we’ve played, everybody is gonna bring us their best, so that kind of brings out the best in us.”
Finnergan Anderson scored a game-high 36 points for the Pirates on 12-of-19 shooting, also making 11 free throws. Hernandez scored 15. Guard Demaree Collins led Skyview with 31 points in the loss. Davis forced stops down the stretch.
“We knew we had to be aggressive, we knew we had to execute,” Hernandez said. “I think we executed really well down the stretch. We were just being aggressive and that got us the win.”
Davis will face the winner of Tahoma and top-seeded Mount Si in the semifinals on Friday. This year’s group believes it has the pieces to win it all.
“This group has been together for four years already,” Hernandez said. “We know this is the last one. We know we’ve gotta go get this one.”
No. 1 Mount Si 71, No. 2 Tahoma 53
The high-flying Latt Ford put on a show at the Tacoma Dome: Mount Si’s sophomore guard dropped a game-high 26 points, slammed home five dunks, and lifted the top-ranked Wildcats over No. 2 Tahoma in Thursday’s 4A state quarterfinals.
Ford broke loose for dunks on three consecutive trips in the second quarter and added an alley-oop slam in the third; he was both Mount Si’s best shot-creator and offensive facilitator.
“It’s fun,” Ford said. “I think all five (dunks) were assists, so it was my teammates really setting me up.”
It’s easy to see why these programs were the 4A bracket’s top seeds. Both defenses put on early clamps. And both offenses knocked down contested bucket after contested bucket.
But the second quarter is where Ford flew to the hoop and Tahoma’s offense failed to keep up.
“We started getting stops,” Ford said. “We started getting rebounds. We knew how to beat them. They didn’t get back on defense, so we rebounded and we ran. Just got a lot of buckets in transition, hit a couple of threes.”
Ford posted 26 points, seven rebounds, and went 11-of-17 from the field and 2-of-5 from downtown.
Mount Si’s Trevor Hennig, a guard, scored 17 points (5-5 FT) with seven assists and six rebounds.
Wildcats guard Blake Forrest sank a halftime buzzer-beater from the perimeter and finished with 14 points, seven assists, and five rebounds.
Bears guard Carter Stonerock paced Tahoma with 13 points.
No. 4 Glacier Peak 65, No. 3 Gonzaga Prep 58 (OT)
Moments after Glacier Peak completed an improbable comeback over No. 3 Gonzaga Prep, Grizzlies guard Josiah Lee interviewed with the media for most of five minutes. After all, his pair of game-winning three-pointers in overtime kept Glacier Peak’s title hopes alive.
The rest of the roster, meanwhile, waited patiently to stick Glacier Peak’s name on Friday’s semifinals bracket. They weren’t going to let Lee, the game’s most valuable player, miss the moment.
“Are you waiting for Josiah?” one reporter asked.
“Oh yeah! That’s Jo! That’s Jo!” they clamored.
With 3:45 remaining in regulation, Glacier Peak faced a 10-point deficit – but the Grizzlies stormed back and Lee piled all eight of his team’s points in overtime, finishing a statement rally.
“I think it was the realization that our season was on the line,” Lee said. “We got here, and we talked about playing on Saturday… I looked at the scoreboard, we were down, I knew something had to change.”
In the game’s opening 5 minutes and 17 seconds, Glacier Peak couldn’t buy a bucket. For more than half of the first quarter in Thursday’s 4A quarterfinal at the Tacoma Dome, the Grizzlies missed their first 10 shots and were held off the scoreboard entirely.
“We haven’t really played pressure this intense before,” Lee said. “We had to get used to it, adjust. Once we started figuring that out, shots started falling.”
No. 3 Gonzaga Prep’s 10-point lead in the fourth quarter marked their largest of the game before its impending collapse.
Lee dropped a game-high 22 points with six rebounds. Glacier Peak’s Reed Nagel, a guard, scored 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting, and Isaiah Cuellar-Bell added 13 points.
Glacier Peak meets the Kentwood-Richland winner on Friday night at the Tacoma Dome in a 4A semifinal. Tip is set for 9 p.m.
No. 7 Richland 84, No. 8 Kentwood 60
Richland High School may sit some 216 miles from the Tacoma Dome, but dozens of the more-devoted student-fans packed the lower levels for the Bombers’ 4A quarterfinal clash at the Tacoma Dome on Thursday night.
They were handsomely rewarded.
It was all Richland from the opening tip. The Bombers grabbed a double-digit lead in the first quarter and never looked back, efficiently powered by Jack Forbes’ game-high 26 points on 12-of-17 shooting.
When the final buzzer sounded and Richland’s roster mobbed the student section, the No. 7 Bombers had cruised past No. 8 Kentwood, 84-60, sending Richland to Friday’s 4A semifinals, or “Final Four.”
“It’s amazing. It really just shows how much they care,” Forbes said of the Richland faithful. “It’s like an extra player out there for us.”
Too ferocious on the glass and too accurate from the field, Richland never permitted Kentwood to sniff a comeback.
“You just have to go into it with energy,” Forbes said. “That’s what we do every game.”
Four Bombers, including Forbes, posted double-digit scoring performances. Richland guard Lance Horntvedt and forward Lucas Westerfield tallied 18 points apiece and guard Joshua Woodard added 10.
Brandon Tagle paced Kentwood with 15 points in the loss.
The Bombers meet No. 4 Glacier Peak in Friday’s semifinal at the Tacoma Dome. Tip is set for 9 p.m.
CLASS 3A GIRLS
No. 3 Snohomish 45, No. 5 Arlington 25
The Eagles may have been in white, but the Panthers played from the start like they were the higher seed – which they were coming in. A regional loss to No. 6 Garfield, however, put No. 3 Snohomish on the same side of the bracket with its area rival – and No. 5 seed – Arlington.
These teams played just two weeks ago and Snohomish won by just two, 45-43. But in the quarterfinals on Thursday the Eagles made just one of their 18 field goal attempts in the first half – good for just 5.5 percent from the floor – and trailed 28-7 at the half.
It never got much better, though Arlington did outscore the Panthers, 12-10, in the fourth quarter. Overall, the Eagles made 10.9 percent of their shots – 5-for-46.
The win sends Snohomish into a 7:15 p.m. semifinal against either Bonney Lake or top-seeded Mead on Friday evening. Arlington plays the loser of the Bonney Lake-Mead contest in a loser out game earlier in the day.
Tyler Gildersleeve-Stiles made five of nine from the field and finished with a game-high 12 points to go with eight rebounds for the Panthers.
No. 1 Mead 72, No. 7 Bonney Lake 44
Teams might be able to slow down one of Mead’s stars occasionally, but good luck stopping both. The duo of guards Teryn Gardner and Addison Wells-Morrison — the daughter of former Gonzaga All-American Adam Morrison — was as good as advertised in top-seeded Mead’s 72-44 win over Bonney Lake on Thursday.
“Shots were just falling,” said Gardner, who scored 25 points and hit five 3-pointers in the win. “I felt good, shot felt good, release felt good and we found our teammates, too. Their shots were falling.”
Wells-Morrison scored a game-high 26 points, connecting on 4-of-5 shots from beyond the arc.
The game was close at half before Mead pulled away and won comfortably.
“We turned up the defensive pressure, for sure,” Gardner said. “We never stopped. We like to go hard 100 percent of the time and just never give up and never let them back in the game.”
Three Bonney Lake Panthers scored in double-digits: Jazmyn Shipp (15), Evin Elias (15) and Ava Rice (12). Mead will face No. 3 Snohomish in the 3A state tournament semifinals on Friday.
No. 6 Garfield 54, No. 12 Everett 43
Having seen their eight-point halftime lead vanish into a 30-27 deficit late in the third quarter, the Bulldogs got six points from Sarah Lessig of a 10-1 run to end the quarter and stabilize their eventual quarterfinal victory.
Leading it 37-31 entering the fourth, Garfield turned things over to Katie Fiso. The senior guard responded by scoring 13 of her game-high 30 points in just over four minutes of the final quarter.
Fiso’s final 3-pointer of the game staked the Bulldogs to their biggest lead of the night, 51-37. The University of Oregon-bound scorer also had six rebounds in the record-setting win.
Garfield now has won 11 consecutive games at the state tournament over the last four seasons, breaking the mark held previously by Blanchet from 1995-97 and Seattle Prep from 2001-03, and tied by the 2023 Bulldogs when they beat Lake Washington for their third straight 3A title last March.
Should Garfield go on to win an unprecedented fourth consecutive championship, the Bulldogs would tie 4A Lewis & Clark for the most consecutive wins in any big-school classification in Washington with 13.
“In the record books, that’s nice,” Garfield coach Roy Smiley said. “It’s a special group, man. We don’t even notice stuff like that on the journey. So to hear stuff like that is a great accomplishment. But eyes are focused straight forward.”
No. 2 Lakeside of Seattle 62, No. 8 North Thurston 49
The Lions advanced to their first semifinal since 2003, the year Lakeside won the 3A state title. This time, they face a very familiar foe.
Not only will this be the fifth meeting between the Metro League foes, who have each won twice so far this season, but it will be the third consecutive season the teams have met in the state tournament. Garfield has ousted Lakeside in the quarterfinals the past two seasons.
This 9 p.m. semifinal on Friday marks the first time the Lions have made the final four 3A teams since 2003, the same season Lakeside won the title. The Lions also are assured of a trophy. It will be the program’s first since it captured Fourth in 2009.
Against the Rams, Mia Broom scored 17 of her game-high 26 points in the first half as Lakeside built a nine-point advantage, 33-24. Broom also had six steals.
This story was originally published February 29, 2024 at 10:46 AM.
