SPOKANE — The King’s Way Christian offense that was missing in the State 1B boys basketball semifinals found the defense in Saturday’s trophy round.
Unfortunately it wasn’t the other way around.
The defense joined the offense on the AWOL list, allowing Neah Bay to race away with a 69-36 win in the battle for third place.
“We struggle with that type of pressure, we have all year,” first-year coach Alex Kirk said. “We certainly have shown better against that type of style in the past. I don’t know if it was fatigue or if it was playing an early morning game but we just didn’t come out with the type of ball security or intensity we needed and they jumped all over us.”
Still, the Knights (18-9) won their first trophy in school history, finishing in fifth place. Even if they only had one win at state, it was the most important one, winning their opener 61-47 by playing a well-rounded game against another team, Muckleshoot, that came back to win a trophy.
The Red Devils (21-4) put together a 12-0 run in the first quarter as three different players scored back-to-back baskets. It was 21-4 entering the second quarter, which ended with Neah Bay closing with an 8-0 run to lead 33-11 at the half.
From there it just got worse as the Red Devils never let up on the gas.
“I’ll take the blame for the score getting as lopsided as it did,” Kirk said. “In trying to win we did things we haven’t done all year. We haven’t pressed ever and so in trying to get our guys playing a little bit tougher we started doing some things we’re not accustomed to.
“Because of that we were giving up layups that we don’t typically give up, we were giving them open looks, we were not playing the type of sound team defense that got us this far.”
The Knights continued shooting woes — 19 percent in the first half, 25 percent for the game — was accentuated with 21 turnovers. That put too much pressure on the defense, which allowed Neah Bay to hit 41 percent, buoyed by a 50 percent first half.
Jay Becker was the only Knight to find the range, scoring 15 points, but the Red Devils had four players in double figures, led by quick guard Leyton Doherty with 18 points on 8 of 9 shooting. Michael Dulik added 16, John Reamer had 13 and Johnny Smith 10.
“We’ve got great kids, great role models and leaders around school,” Kirk said. “As a staff we really feel blessed to be around this team. We’re definitely looking at this as a stepping stone for greater things to come.
“It’s hard to say that to the seniors. (They) won the first league championships for the school, they got to the final eight for the first time in school history and they got a trophy for the first time in history. (They should) be proud of that because (they’re) the winningest class in school history.”
NEAH BAY 69, KING’S WAY CHRISTIAN 36
NEAH BAY (21-4) — Leyton Doherty 18, DeShawn Halttunen 2, Mitchell McGee 0, Abraham Venske 2, Zeke Greene 1, Michael Dulik 16, Josiah Greene 2, Johnny Smith 10, Keaton Hawkins 0, Tyler McCaulley 3, John Reamer 2, Passcua 13. Totals 23-52 (4-14) 11-19.
KING’S WAY (18-9) — Jay Becker 15, Chris Crenshaw 3, Ben Nelson 0, Matt Friesen 0, Daniel Justus 0, David Veltkamp 4, Sundeep Sandhu 2, Hayden York 0, Carter Coval 0 Josh Snyder 1, Christian Bukant 7, Joshua Kuramoto 4. Totals 9-30 (4-22) 6-14 36.
Neah Bay 21 12 17 19–69
King’s Way 4 7 12 13–36
