Skyview falters late in 51-44 loss to Enumclaw

BATTLE GROUND — If Skyview is to make a run this week at the Tacoma Dome, it must take the long way to do so.

The Storm lost 51-44 to Enumclaw on Saturday at Battle Ground High School in a game they led at halftime and saw slip away in the final minutes. And just like the district tournament, which Skyview started with a loss to Kennedy Catholic, the Storm start its 4A state tournament campaign in similar fashion.

A win would have vaulted the Storm into the quarterfinals on Thursday.

Up next? Skyview will take on Glacier Peak on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. in a loser-out game at the Tacoma Dome.

“We did a pretty good job executing what we wanted to do at the end, they just made a few more plays than we did,” Skyview coach Matt Gruhler said. “That’s playoff basketball, making the big plays and they did that.”

It was all Skyview from the get-go.

Early on, the Storm fed off the pro-Skyview crowd and used that energy to get off to a hot start. Keeping the momentum established in the first half proved difficult.

Skyview took an early lead after a scoring stalemate in the opening minutes, and kept it throughout he first half by minimizing the footprint of Enumclaw big man Kaden Anderson.

Skyview maintained its early lead, but never pushed it to double-digits. Enumclaw cut a nine-point Skyview lead to five points midway through the second quarter. The Storm responded with back-to-back put-backs by Samaad Hector and Cole Grossman, both of which they set up with offensive boards. That nine-point Skyview lead shrunk to four by halftime.

Hector had seven points in the first quarter and scored 11 of his 17 points in the first half. Skyview, Gruhler said, worked to feed him the ball from the jump.

“We got the ball inside, got some good looks and did a good job for us,” Gruhler said. “He plays with high-energy all the time and so that was kind of what we were hoping for. I thought our guys did a good job of finding him when he was open.”

Alex Schumacher added 14 points for the Storm, who only saw four players score.

Defensively, the Storm clicked.

Anderson, who averages around 20 points per game, had just two points in the first half.

And the 6-foot-7 senior got going in the second half. He finished with 13 points and 13 rebounds—four offensive boards—on 6 of 13 shooting. Skyview’s efforts to deny him the ball, which were mainly led by Grossman, were effective. But when the game turned into a defensive battle, Anderson’s shots started to fall.

“I thought Cole Grossman did a really good job executing the game plan and making it really tough on him,” Gruhler said. “The rest of our guys did a good job. At the end of the day he just hit a few more shots when they needed it.”

Enumclaw took its first lead early in the third quarter when Anderson grabbed an offensive board and scored a put-back.

“In the second half it started mellowing down, our court energy,” Schumacher said.

Skyview trailed by three points in the fourth quarter, 44-41, after Jovon Sewell hit a pair of free throws, but Enumclaw closed out the game by scoring seven of the next 10 points.

The Storm hope to regain that energy before it plays in the Tacoma Dome. To do that, Schumacher said, they must remain steady.

“We’re going to keep the same game plan,” Schumacher said.

ENUMCLAW 51, SKYVIEW 44
SKYVIEW—Alex Schumacher 14, Cole Grossman 5, Jovon Sewell 6, Samaad Hector 17, Squeeky Johnson 0, Lowell Dunmire 0, Kyle Gruhler 0. 15 (4) 10-14 44.
ENUMCLAW—Kaden Anderson 13, Griffin Webb 3, Kale Engebretsen 0, Bryson Engebretsen 10, Kellen Kranc 0, Peter Erickson 16, Easton Tandecki 7, Josh Brown 2, Keegan Ulrich 0. 19 (6) 7-9 51.
Skyview 12 12 7 13— 44
Enumclaw 6 14 13 18—51