YAKIMA — No. 1 North Kitsap’s pressure defense and talented offense were too much for No. 7 Port Angeles to handle in the rubber match between the Olympic League co-champs in a 75-58 defeat in the Class 2A state quarterfinals Thursday night at xthe Yakima Valley SunDome.
“North Kitsap’s defensive pressure was really good and we didn’t handle it as properly as we would have liked,” coach Kasey Ulin said. “Their depth, their pressure and their aggression just kind of wore on us throughout the game.”
Port Angeles (19-7) has to rebound quickly with a 12:15 p.m. tipoff against Prosser on Friday, a loser-out matchup for the right to play for fourth/sixth place on Saturday.
“That is the hardest game of the tournament, the bounce back,” Ulin said. “The team that is most emotionally resilient will win.”
Port Angeles never held a lead against the Vikings, falling behind 7-0 before rallying back to trail 31-27 at halftime despite a number of turnovers that led to easy North Kitsap baskets.
“We were a little careless with the ball in the first half, we had 14 turnovers,” Ulin said. “Realistically, to be down just four at halftime when we hadn’t played so well, we were in a good spot.
Xander Maestas knocked down a triple out of the break to cut the North Kitsap lead to 31-30. Maestas was a bright spot for the Riders, attacking the rim consistenly for 19 points.
Things were looking up, until they weren’t.
North Kitsap point guard Cade Orness stole an inbounds pass and scored on a one-hand slam. He ended up scoring 12 of his 19 points
Seattle Pacific-commit Jonas La Tour drained a 3 and was fouled by Wyatt Dunning, on his way to scoring nine of his game-high 25 in the third.
All of a sudden, North Kitsap was on an 11-2 run and led 51-38.
Port Angeles hung in there, cutting the Vikings lead to 60-53, but North Kitsap sophomore Harry Davies pushed the lead back to double digits with an answering 3 and the Riders came no closer.
John Vaara fared well inside for the Riders with a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
Dunning was guarded closely by La Tour the entire contest and scored 10.
“Wyatt, that was the best that’s he’s been defended,” Ulin said. “Jonas did a great job on him. Wyatt worked as hard as he possibly could on both sides of the ball. They were trying to take him out of the game and make him work as hard as possible.”
Now Port Angeles has to decide how its season ends.
“There’s nothing for us to hang our heads about, our kids played as hard as they could,” Ulin said. “For us, we have to bounce back. We have a chance to make some history. There haven’t been a lot of times where hardware is brought home. To do something only a couple of teams in the history of our school have done is our focus.”
No. 1 North Kitsap 75, No. 7 Port Angeles 58
PA 14 13 20 11 — 58
NK 17 14 27 17 — 75
Port Angeles (58): Maestas 19, Vaara 13, Dunning 10, Wheeler 8, Soule 8, Gundersen, Long, Shamp, Burkhardt, Albaugh, Townsend.
North Kitsap (75): La Tour 25, Orness 19, Davies 12, Olmsted 8, Bower, Chmielewski, Gillespie, Perkins, Hager, Ashford-Downing.
