TACOMA — With Neah Bay leading scorer Abraham Venske hobbled by a high-ankle sprain suffered late in the third quarter, Ryan Moss stepped forward to score nine of his 14 points in the final period, as the Red Devils survived a late Three Rivers Christian rally to win 63-60.
The regionals win Saturday at Mount Tahoma High School clinched Neah Bay’s fifth straight trip to the Class 1B state tournament in Spokane.
The Red Devils will open the state tournament looking to avenge last year’s semifinal loss to Pomeroy.
Moss scored the Neah Bay’s last four points in a wild finish to Saturday’s game.
He nailed a wide-open transition 3 to give the Red Devils some breathing room with a 62-54 lead with 1:13 to play.
But Three Rivers Christian’s Eric Powell wasn’t having it, sucking the air out of the Neah Bay faithful with an immediate answer of his own, a trey that pulled the Eagles back to within 62-57 with 56 seconds to go.
He followed that with another 3 with 30 seconds left to cut the Red Devils’ lead to 62-60.
Powell finished with a game-high 21 points.
Moss hit the first free throw in a 1-and-1 situation, and then had the second freebie rattle down and out as Neah Bay led 63-60 with 13.1 seconds to go.
The Eagles elected not to call a timeout, instead spending the remaining moments trying to dribble around the Red Devils’ defense.
But they could not find any space, and Seth Carns heaved an NBA-length 3 that hit off the back iron with three seconds to go before bouncing out of bounds at the buzzer.
“Yeah, I might need to get my blood pressure checked after that one,” Neah Bay coach Stan Claplanhoo said.
“At points in that game, they just couldn’t miss.”
“We saw on film where they had no hesitation in putting up shots early in their possessions, which usually means a team can shoot.
“They weren’t hitting in that film, but we thought they had the right mindset to shoot.”
In the opening minutes, it was the Red Devils who were in the right mindset to shoot.
Kenrick Doherty Jr. scored 12 of his 14 points in the first quarter as Neah Bay led 20-9 after one period.
“We really wanted to come out and set the tone on defense and have that create some offense for us,” Claplanhoo said.
Then a curious occurrence: the Eagles didn’t miss a shot from the field in the second quarter, hitting all 7 attempts, including two 3s to chip away and trail 34-28 at halftime.
“We weren’t playing bad defense there at all,” Claplanhoo said.
“Give them the credit, they were hitting from inside, from outside, everywhere.”
It could have been worse for Neah Bay, but Venske put the team on his shoulders to get buckets on three consecutive possessions.
He stole the ball on back to back plays, twisting through the lane for layups, then followed a made Three Rivers Christian basket with another layup, dipping to his right to avoid a charge at the last possible moment.
Venske had 10 of his team-high 19 points in the second.
The Red Devils opened the second half looking inside, with John Reamer scoring six quick points in the post, and a Moss 3 giving Neah Bay a 43-30 lead with 5:36 to go in the third quarter.
“Yeah, we wanted to look inside and have them crash on it so we could get scores or find shooters,” Claplanhoo said.
Reamer finished with 11 points, all after halftime.
The Eagles weren’t finished, going on another shooting spree, this time hitting another seven shots in a row over the end of the third and start of the fourth quarter, to trail 52-48 with 6:18 to go.
Venske came back in the game with 5:52 to play, and slowed as he was, still managed to get to the rack for a crucial layup to make it 59-53 Neah Bay with 3:08 to play.
He also was frustrated by some late turnovers committed by the Red Devils.
“We were giving it away and giving them extra shots,” Venske said.
“I was getting irritated with so many turnovers. We needed more focus.”
Neah Bay managed just enough focus in the final seconds to get back to Spokane and the state tournament, with Moss coming through with the final four points and good defensive effort as a team on Three Rivers Christian’s final possession.
“That was good for Ryan to get some shots to drop,” Claplanhoo said. “We need his shot to fall for us to go far.”
Neah Bay will face Pomeroy at 7:15 p.m. Thursday at Spokane Veteran’s Memorial Arena.
Neah Bay 63, Three Rivers Christian 60
Three Rivers 9 19 13 19— 60
Neah Bay 20 14 14 15— 63
Individual scoring
Three Rivers Christian (60)
Powell 21, Carns 19, Moore 10, Hull 8, Rentner 2.
Neah Bay (63)
Venske 19, Moss 14, Doherty Jr. 14, Reamer 11, Claplanhoo 5, Buttram, Munyagi..
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 5250 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
