SPOKANE — You don’t come home with a state championship gold ball every season. And sometimes you don’t get to bring back a trophy from a state tournament appearance.
Neah Bay learned that tough lesson Friday when the Red Devils boys basketball team was eliminated from the Class 1B state boys basketball tournament after a 75-59 consolation bracket loss to Yakama Nation Tribal School at Spokane Arena.
Another tough lesson — show up on time — was administered to three starters to open the game. Rweha Munyagi, Cole Svec and Cameron Moore all sat instead of starting after showing up late for a ride to watch the Neah Bay girls’ 9 a.m. game against Tacoma Baptist.
“Coming into the game, we had some things going on in the locker room that’s not worth discussing, but we were hyped for the game,” senior Kenrick Doherty Jr. said.
“All of us were talking last night about this game and taking on Yakama to get to the fourth-place game, but I could tell in warmups something was wrong, and Yakama came ready to play.”
After foundering in the fourth quarter against Sunnyside Christian in Thursday’s quarterfinal loss, Neah Bay again fell short down the stretch as the Eagles broke open a 52-52 tie with 3:36 remaining with a 23-7 run to close out the contest and win the right to play for fourth place on Saturday.
“I thought we still played strong in certain stretches of the game where we’d pull away and make a little run, or fight back in and play our style,” Red Devils head coach Ben Maxson said.
“We got lackadaisical in our movement, got lackadaisical in our defensive rotation. And Lord knows when you are playing against a team that is smaller but as quick as you are you have got to block out. And we did not block out all night.”
Neah Bay actually outrebounded Yakama 36-35 for the game, but in that fourth quarter it seemed like every board went the Eagles’ way.
Christian Vigil, a 6-foot-3 round mound of rebound for Yakama, came up huge after playing sparingly in the tournament’s first two games.
“He was ready to get the ball down low and would up fake, get our guys off their feet and go up,” Doherty said. “He had some smart moves.”
Maxson agreed Vigil’s performance was an important component in Yakama’s upset.
“He comes in and is able to put a body on our guys and keep us off the boards,” Maxson said.
Jason Axtell also hurt the Red Devils with a 20-point performance for the Eagles and Isiah Strom scored 15 with five assists as effective dribble penetration led to close shots inside for Yakama.
“The game plan was to watch their shooting and watch their penetration,” Doherty said. “They probably averaged 10 to 15 3s in their previous games, so tonight it was mainly off the bounce.”
Moore came off the bench to score a team-high 15 points, including two consecutive treys to give Neah Bay its biggest lead of the game, 33-24 with under three minutes to go in the second quarter.
But the Red Devils couldn’t maintain that level of play and Yakama closed the first half with an 8-0 run to trail 33-32 at the break.
Neah Bay led 42-38 in the final minute of the third, but Strom and Bryan Storm attacked the rim for layups to close the quarter tied at 42-all.
The Eagles and Red Devils traded scores for the first half of the final frame, but Yakama kept attacking and Neah Bay grew stagnant offensively leading to the big closing run.
“We were lax in running the format that helped us get to this point of the season,” Maxson said.
“We talked about being mentally clicked in to the game, and I don’t think we were completely mentally there. We weren’t committed the way we needed to be.”
The loss closed out the careers of Doherty, Greene, Svec, Anthony Bitegeko, Nate Tyler, Cameron Buzzell and Zack Dulik.
“Cameron Buzzell was hurt all season after being a contributor last year,” Maxson said.
“Cole Svec contributed so much after not playing basketball since eighth grade. Nate Tyler was big for us today and always gave us tough minutes.
“And Anthony and Kenrick are consummate stewards of the game. They watch, they learn, they listen. You couldn’t ask for better leaders.”
“Dulik was team player, never missed a practice and his dedication made us a better team,” Maxson said.
Doherty, who reached state all four years in his high school career, was awarded a game ball postgame in recognition of scoring his 1,000th point in the loss to Sunnyside Christian. He had nine points in his final game as a Red Devil.
He closed his career with a piece of advice for younger players.
“If there’s anything I could say to younger kids it would be to put in as much time and effort into the gym as you can because you don’t want to have those regrets. Even this year, I didn’t put as much time in as I should and I regret that now.”
Yakama 75, Neah Bay 59
Yakama 17 15 10 33 — 75
Neah Bay 12 21 9 17 — 59
Yakama (75) — Axtell 20, Isiah Strom 15, Vigil 14, Pastrana 11, Bryan Storm 6, Billy 4, Bryce Strom 3, Valerio 2
Neah Bay (59) — Moore 15, Greene 15, Doherty 9, A. Bitegeko 7, Svec 5, Munyagi 4, Tyler 4.
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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
