YAKIMA — Besides the similar green-and-white jerseys, No. 7 Port Angeles and No. 5 Tumwater put together almost the same exact performance as the Thunderbirds held back the Roughriders 50-45 in the Class 2A boys basketball state tournament’s fourth/sixth-place game Saturday at the Yakima Valley SunDome.
Port Angeles (20-8) wrapped its best season and earned its first state placement since the 1996-1997 Riders squad finished seventh in the 4A tourney. It’s the fifth state trophy in 13 state trips in school history.
“Two very evenly matched teams that competed and threw punches,” head coach Kasey Ulin said. “Unfortunately, we gave up a couple of easy shots in the second half after we responded to their 8-2 run. I’m Incredibly proud of this group, to go four days in a row is asking a lot of five guys and today I thought we were a little fatigued. Wyatt [Dunning], Xander [Maestas] are kinda of gassed. Quanah is hurt. Everybody was impacted. But this game was a possession or two away from being ours.”
Port Angeles trailed 28-21 late in the first half before getting a couple of buckets by Maestas and Dunning to pull within 28-25 at the break. The run continued after halftime with the Riders taking their first lead on 3-pointer by Dunning with 7:13 to go in the third.
Tumwater regrouped after a timeout and went on a 10-2 run to wrest back control of the lead before Port Angeles closed out the third on a 6-0 run capped by a Maestas layup before the buzzer.
In the fourth, the T-Birds finally found leading scorer Luke Brewer. Brewer hit two 3s to go up 48-42 with 2:15 to go.
Dunning answered with a triple, but Port Angeles could come no closer.
Dunning had 13 and Vaara, who played particularly well inside against future University of Washington tight end Ryan Otton and Tumwater’s other tall timber, totaled 13 points, nine rebounds and four blocked shots.
“They were a strong team, a very aggressive team that could shoot the ball from outside,” Vaara said. “Our goal was to lock up No. 11 [Brewer] and not let him have a big game. I felt Xander and Gundy [Damon Gundersen] did an amazing job at that.”
Ulin said he appreciated the team’s defensive performance.
“Defensively, we were really good,” Ulin said. “We wanted to stop Luke Brewer, we held him to eight points his lowest total of the year. Xander was amazing on him all night. Damon and Mike [Soule] were really active defensively. Just two very similar teams, they have a little more depth right now and that’s something we’ve been fighting for a month or so.”
Vaara put the team’s season in perspective.
“It does feel good. For our school its the first time since ‘97 that we’ve gone this far and I couldn’t be more proud of this team and what we accomplished,” he said.
“We are a really tight-knit team and it stings that its about to be over, but it’s also bittersweet — I’m happy we got to spend this time together and we tried to make as much of it as we could together.”
And Ulin said this group advanced the program further than any he’s coached.
“These guys have done something that hasn’t been done since 1997,” Ulin said. “And they’ve created the culture where this is the expectation every year and today’s loss stings a little bit, but for me I’m full of joy and extremely proud of the group, and of the commitment to excellence of that senior group. So committed to doing the right thing and investing the time and being great teammates and high character kids. They’ve created a really high standard for us.”
Tumwater 50, Port Angeles 45
PA 11 14 13 7 — 45
Tum. 15 13 10 12 — 50
Port Angeles (45) — Dunning 13, Vaara 13, Maestas 10, Wheeler 7, Soule 2, Gundersen, Shamp.
Tumwater (50) — Overbay 13, Otton 12, L. Brewer 8, Hopkins 6, Collins 6, Oram 3, Reid 2, Weller, T. Brewer.
