Though I did not ask him, I feel confident that Shawn Kemp would agree: It’s tough to win a basketball game when you can’t hit an outside shot and your best player has been ejected.
I think NBAers Jamal Crawford and Spencer Hawes, who, like Kemp, attended Tuesday’s boys basketball game between #1-ranked Seattle Prep and #3 Rainier Beach, would nod in concurment [Concurment? Seth, like Shakespeare, likes to add words to the language when he needs them–ed.]. As would, I suspect, former Husky legend Will Conroy and current Seattle U head coach Cameron Dollar, who were also at the game.
Yet this dire scenario did not deter the scrappy, undersized Rainier Beach Vikings from pulling out an improbable 64-56 comeback victory in the hostile Seattle Prep gym, in front of a packed house–so packed that late-arrivers Kemp and Crawford had to stand the whole game. I have seen Kemp arrive late to Seattle Storm games, but there he is whisked to a court-side seat. No such treatment in the egalitarian world of the high school gym!
Beach was down seven points in the third quarter when Anrio Adams, their best player–the state’s best player, according to SeaTown Sports–got a technical foul for jawing with a Seattle Prep player. Wouldn’t have been a big deal except that Adams had been caught dunking during warmups–which, apparently, earns you a technical foul in high school basketball instead of a standing ovation. And, at every level of basketball, two technicals spells E-J-E-C-T-I-O-N.
With Adams out, the smart money was on a Beach collapse. Prep went on an immediate 7-0 run. Two other top Beach players, wing Dujuan Piper and guard Marquis Davis, were in foul trouble. Down eight points going into the fourth quarter. Beach’s fate was in the tiny hands of their two smallest players–5’9″ Will Dorsey and 5’8″ Naim Ladd. Inserted into the lineup by necessity, Dorsey and Ladd’s quickness changed the game.
On offense, both were able to drive past Prep’s larger, slower guards for lay-ins. On defense, they were able to help double-team Prep center Mitch Brewe, denying entry passes to the UCSB-bound senior, then sprinting back out to the perimeter to hassle Prep’s guards.
With Crawford pantomiming advice from the crowd, Beach’s defense earned stop after stop, inching closer with their dribble-drive offense (I don’t believe Beach hit a shot longer than six feet the entire second half). With about five minutes left, Beach pulled ahead on a drive and floater by Dorsey, who then stole the inbounds pass and dished to a teammate for a short jumper. The Vikings never trailed again. Dorsey ended up with six points in the fourth quarter, Ladd with seven.
Beach outscored Prep 24-8 in the final frame. The key was, as a friend pointed out after the game: “I thought they couldn’t win unless they started hitting their outside shots. But, instead, they just stopped taking them.”
Beach’s comeback emboldened their cheering section, which had been mostly quiet during the game–at least compared to Seattle Prep’s students, who stood for the whole game and unleashed a variety of classic chants. As the seconds wound down, Beach fans began their own classic chant: “Over-rated.”
Before abandoning the game narrative, I feel compelled to note that the three officials did an outstanding job staying in control of a physical, fast-paced game that could easily have gotten out of hand. I’m not saying they got every call right, but they made it a fair contest despite absorbing a lot of abuse from both coaches, both cheering sections, and players on both teams. Bill Leavy, however, still stinks.
A word on the notable players in Tuesday’s game:
Anrio Adams: Back in the Metro League after two years of ineligibility, the Kansas-bound senior displayed his outstanding leaping ability on a couple of plays–driving into the lane, jumping, floating, switching hands, and scoring. We didn’t get to see much of his outside shot (he actually started in the post for Beach, though he’ll surely be a guard in college), but chalk that up to Prep’s extending their defense out to the perimeter for most of the game.
Mitch Brewe: Seattle Prep’s senior post led all scorers with 22 points, but–tired perhaps–wasn’t able to get much going in the pivotal fourth quarter.
D.J. Fenner: Like Adams, Fenner (son of former Seahawks RB Derrick Fenner) is back in Metro after two years away. The junior guard, at 6’5″, still has the college-level height and body type, but we didn’t see him do many basketball things. A friend noted that he seemed to have trouble catching the ball. In Fenner’s defense, he was in foul trouble most of the night. Once considered one of the nation’s top freshmen, Fenner isn’t starting for Prep–though it’s unclear whether this is a tactical thing or a reflection on his ability.
For next Metro League Tuesday I will be at Roosevelt, watching the Rough Riders take on Bothell and guard Zach Levine, one of the state’s top scorers.