Metro League Tuesday: Beavers Trim Bulldogs (Not My Joke!)

Let's cut the bullpoo and get right to the basketball, shall we? Because the #6-ranked Garfield Bulldogs and unranked Ballard Beavers put on a thrilling show Tuesday night.

Oh the fun! The two student sections, shouting derisive chants at each other. Ballard's Salim Gloyd, a Garfield Bulldog the past two seasons, hitting shot after shot against his former team. Garfield's Glenn Brooks, keeping his young, underachieving Bulldogs in the game. 

We'll start just after halftime, where the best action was between the two student sections. The Ballard rooters, about 100 students who stood for the entire game, felt emboldened enough by their school's seven-point lead over the favored Bulldogs to unleash the ubiquitous "O-VER-RAT-ED! O-VER-RAT-ED!"

Garfield's students retorted with "WE CAN'T HEAR YOU! WE CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

Then things got a little more creative. And bawdy.

Ballard got off a chant of "YOU NEED TON-Y! YOU NEED TON-Y!" It's a reference to Garfield mega-star Tony Wroten, sitting behind the Garfield bench in street clothes while he recovers from a knee injury.

Garfield students, sitting one section to my left, were momentarily confused. The discussed the proper comeback. Then their voices began to ring out: "TRIM YOUR BEA-VERS! TRIM YOUR BEA-VERS!" Yowza!

Back to the game, where Garfield was employing a new strategy against former teammate Salim Gloyd. The muscular Gloyd, who played post for Garfield the past two years, is more of a shooter for the Beavers. He clearly enjoyed facing his old team. In the first half, after drilling a three in the face of former teammate Wilson Platt, Gloyd delivered some trash talk and a chuck on the shoulder.

Garfield coach Ed Haskins switched his defense in half two, taking Platt off Gloyd and sticking guard Glenn Brooks on him. The move paid off immediately, as Brooks grabbed a steal and scored a bucket to bring the Bulldogs closer. Gloyd went to the bench.

Soon after, Garfield frosh Deshaun Hall took a pass from Brooks in the post and, undeterred by a late-arriving double-team, flipped a shot off the backboard and in to cap a 12-2 Garfield run and tie the game midway through the third quarter.

The teams traded baskets thereafter, and game was tied with 3:30 left, when Ballard broke out. Converting a Glenn Brooks miss into a fast break, 6'3" frosh Seth Berger assisted on a go-ahead lay-in. My fellow Garfield alum friend Steve had just called Berger "the worst player on Ballard." He would eat those words.

On Garfield's next possession, Berger blocked Will Dorsey's shot, leading to another Ballard fastbreak. Berger ended up with a wide-open three-point attempt and swished it, giving Ballard a 58-53 lead with 2:43 left. Ballard's fans went crazy. Ballard's bench went crazy. Garfield called time out.

"You said he was the worst guy on the team," I yelled to Steve above the whoops of the standing, cheering Ballard rooters surrounding us.

"Well that was a wide-open three," Steve said. Then something caused him to reminisce about our own days as high school hoops rooters.

Ballard's Hoops Wall of Fame: Space available!

"I remember looking across at Ballard when we were in high school and thinking 'You are all clowns,'" he remembered. "You know?"

I nodded assent.

"I mean, you knew a few people at Franklin, and they were okay, and at Roosevelt, maybe ten percent of them were fine, but Ballard?"

It's true. Ballard High was the last place you wanted to be in the mid '90s. In March '94, during the last months of my senior year at Garfield, a girl was shot and killed during lunch period outside Ballard High. The gang-related shooting led to a stricter attendance policy district-wide: you were either on-time to class or you got written up. It was a difficult adjustment for those of us who'd already been accepted to East Coast colleges, and were accustomed to waltzing into first period chemistry taught by the football coach whenever we damn well felt like it.

Ballard's status made a 180 when the school reopened after a 1999 rebuild. Soon Ballard, the first new high school in Seattle since 1963, was the most sought-after destination for our city's ninth graders. In fact, it was the rush to get into Ballard, and the ensuing rejection of white students under the district's "racial tiebreaker" system, which led to the lawsuit that overturned the school district's racial diversity policy. (Just think--someone sued because their daughter couldn't become a Beaver.)

Ten years after Ballard's renovation, Garfield is the hot new renovated school. Hence the team's four outstanding freshmen--6'4" wing Tucker Haymond, 6'6" post Daeshaun Hall, 5'9" point Demario Hall and 5'8" scorer Will Dorsey--who would be stars on practically every team in the state.

With Garfield down 5 and only 2:10 left, the small, quick Dorsey (think a skinny Isaiah Thomas) drove to the basket and got a decent look. He missed, but Garfield's Wilson Platt scored on a tip in to bring the Bulldogs within three at 58-55.

Garfield's relentless full-court pressure finally paid off. The exhausted Beavers turned the ball over, leading to two Glenn Brooks free throws. Then they turned it over again, giving Garfield the ball with 90 seconds left, down 58-57.

Needing just one basket to take the lead, Garfield looked confused against Ballard's 2-3 zone. Perhaps it's because the Bulldogs lack a go-to player with Wroten out. Glenn Brooks, who led Garfield with 13 points, took a contested shot and missed. The Bulldogs got the rebound, but then turned the ball over to Ballard, who held a 58-57 lead with 45 seconds left. (That's three possessions, three turnovers. High school basketball, you do not lack for excitement.)

Here's where the new, statewide 35-second shot clock comes into play. Last year, Garfield would've had to foul the Beavers, and the game would turn into a free-throw contest. But now, guaranteed to get another possession, the Bulldogs allow Ballard to run down the clock and take a shot. The game is decided in the flow of play. I prefer it this way.

Ballard did run the clock down. With the shot clock at 5, senior Gary Smith Jr. found the ball in his hands, on the wing, facing a double-team. Smith did something amazing: He drove toward the two Garfield players, about ten feet from the basket, and leapt toward them. Using tremendous body control, he split the twin defenders, hung in the air, and banked in a runner.

Ballard 60, Garfield 57, 9.7 seconds left.

Once again, Garfield's left with the dilemma of who to take the game-tying three-point attempt. Will Dorsey has a nice shot, but isn't tall enough to create a look. Glenn Brooks has hit a couple of threes, but he has a slow release and can't get his shot off under pressure. Dorsey brings the ball up and finds Brooks in the corner, who rushes his shot and sees it clang off the side of the rim. Garfield's Wilson Platt controls the rebound, but time expires before he can get the ball back beyond the three-point line for another attempt.

Ballard has the upset victory.

Next week, Metro League Tuesday is a South-End battle between Renton and Garfield. At Garfield, 7:30 p.m. This is only for the true rooters, as both the Huskies (vs. Texas A&M) and Cougs (vs. LSU at KeyArena) play the same night. Hope to see you there!