MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Neah Bay has another shot at the boys basketball Class 1B state championship just a year after claiming second.
The Red Devils (19-3) earned a second straight trip to the state championships by manhandling a tall Shorewood Christian (13-9) team 54-40 at regionals Friday night at Mountlake Terrace High School.
Neah Bay captured its best finish ever at state when it lost 55-50 to Sunnyside Christian in the title game a year ago.
The Red Devils have a second opportunity to win that elusive state crown and at the same time of adding hardware to their first-ever football championship last fall.
Despite taking runner-up honors last year, Neah Bay coach Gerrad Brooks, in only his second year as head coach, doesn’t think his team will have a target on its back at the state tournament.
“Like last year, I think we are under the radar of other teams,” Brooks said.
Balanced scoring
That could help the Red Devils make a run at state as well as their ability to have a balanced scoring attack and a solid stop-them-in-their-tracks defense that were both evident against Shorewood Christian on Friday night.
“Our balanced scoring helps out a lot because a team can’t key on any of our players,” Brooks said.
Neah Bay had three players in double figures with Titus Pascua leading the way with 17, Michael Dulik swishing in 15 and Zeke Greene adding 11 with 4 of 5 shooting from the field.
Defense is key
But it’s the defense that makes the Red Devils go.
“Our defense has been outstanding all year,” Brooks said.
Neah Bay put the clamps on Shorewood’s tall point guard, Jordan King.
“He’s the key to their offense,” Brooks said.
Zeke Greene played solid defense on King, holding him to five points on 1 for 5 shooting from the field and 1 for 2 in 3-pointers.
“Zeke did an outstanding job on him, not letting him get into his rhythm,” Brooks said.
Looking up at point
The point guard wasn’t easy to guard because of his height, 6-foot-4 or 6-5, according to Brooks.
Another player tough to guard was 6-6 center Kyle Howell, who was held to eight points on 4 of 9 shooting from the field.
“This was the tallest team we have played all year,” Brooks said.
It helped that both King and Howell fouled out. King went to the bench for good late in the third quarter.
Kyle Lorenz led Shorewood with 13 points while Micah Lorenz had nine.
Despite going against the extra height, the Red Devils controlled the boards as usual, hauling in 24 rebounds.
Dulik earned a double-double with a game-high 12 boards, including five offensive rebounds.
Leyton Doherty gathered up seven boards while Zeke Greene and Josiah Greene had five each.
Dulik also had two blocked shots.
Josiah Greene led the Red Devils with five assists and four steals while Pascua had four assists and three steals.
Zeke Greene also had three steals.
Despite the 16-point winning margin, the Red Devils started out slowly and had to come from behind in the second half.
Shorewood led 10-9 at the end of the first period and 22-14 at the break.
“We missed a lot of layups and we were 2 of 11 from the free-throw line in the first half,” Brooks said.
But Neah Bay came roaring back with a 22-11 advantage in the third quarter to take a 36-33 lead into the fourth period.
1B Regionals
Neah Bay 56, Shorewood Christian 40
Shorewood 10 12 11 7— 40
Neah Bay 9 5 22 20— 56
Individual scoring
Shorewood Christian (40)
K. Lorenz 13, King 5, Brotherton 2, M. Lorenz 9, Howell 8, Morris 3.
Neah Bay (56)
Doherty 7, Z. Greene 11, Dulik 15, J. Greene 2, Pascua 17, Smith 4.
Girls Regionals
Both the Neah Bay and Port Angeles girls basketball teams played winner-to-state, loser-out regional games late Saturday afternoon or evening.
Results were not available by press time.
