Rainier Beach overwhelms Lincoln in 3A state championship game
The stunned, exasperated looks on the faces of Lincoln’s players said it all. Nothing went according to plan.
No. 7 Lincoln was overwhelmed by top-seeded Rainier Beach from the tip, blown out in the Class 3A state championship game on Saturday night at the Tacoma Dome in a game that was never competitive.
Rainier Beach jumped out to a 12-1 lead early, led 18-3 at the end of the first quarter and led 38-8 at half. Lincoln lost, 75-53, its dreams of an upset crushed by a relentless Rainier Beach defense that gave the Abes no breathing room.
“Us ending the half with eight points, we can’t be doing that as a basketball team,” Lincoln guard Davion Shareef-Dulaney told The News Tribune. “That’s first quarter points, right there. That’s not good enough.”
The Tacoma Dome was packed and buzzing during pregame warmups. The matchup had a lot going for it: a Tacoma school playing in the game, the excitement of a Tacoma vs. Seattle rivalry and the chance for fans to watch Beach’s Tyran Stokes, the nation’s No. 1 ranked high school player.
But the potential of an exciting matchup never translated to the court.
“One, they’re really good,” Lincoln coach Ryan Rogers said. “But we just didn’t play our game. They disrupted us, made us a little uncomfortable, to where we had to play a little forced, we turned the ball over too much. When you do that, a good team is gonna capitalize. They just really killed us in transition off of our bad shots and turnovers.”
Lincoln played better in the second half, outscoring Rainier Beach by eight points, but it was too little, too late by that point.
Rainier Beach’s defensive strategy: constant double and triple teams on Shareef-Dulaney, usually at the top of the key.
“It was hard to adjust to, it was tough,” Shareef-Dulaney said.
That swarming defense made Rainier Beach the state’s top 3A program this winter.
“It gives us rhythm for our offense,” Rainier Beach guard Micah Ili-Meneese said. “It wasn’t even our offense that started in the first half, it was our defense.”
Freshman JJ Crawford, the son of former NBA player Jamal Crawford, scored 18 points, Stokes scored 16 and guard Micah Ili-Meneese scored 15. For Lincoln, Shareef-Dulaney scored 18, Kasey Williams had 11 and Justus Holt had 10.
“It means a lot,” JJ Crawford said of winning a title in his first year at Beach. “We put in the work as a team. We had ups and downs but we came out on top.”
Saturday’s game marked Lincoln’s first state championship game appearance since 2002, when Lincoln won its second consecutive 4A title.
The Vikings’ win gives Rainier Beach coach Mike Bethea his 10th state championship.
“Tell you what, it’s as sweet as that first one,” Bethea said. “It means a lot. We set a goal coming in, all the kids. Our focus all year was defending our title. We didn’t really put a lot of emphasis on it being No. 10. We wanted to defend it and we knew what it took. It’ll hit me tomorrow.”
Shareef-Dulaney wants a rematch next March. He didn’t mince words.
“I just hope Rainier Beach recruits somebody next year so I can go at them,” he told The News Tribune. “I want them next year for the state championship.”
This story was originally published March 7, 2026 at 10:30 PM.
