The members of the Mountain View boys basketball team did it for themselves, and they did it for their coach.
After 18 years as head coach, Mike Cranston and the Thunder have their district championship.
Lucas Swanson scored 20 points, Andrew White added 18, and the Thunder held off a furious rally by Skyview for a 65-64 victory in the Class 4A District 4 title game Thursday night.
Mountain View led by 11 with three minutes to play before the Storm got hot — again — and nearly stole one at the end of the game.
Skyview’s Jordan Chatman came up with a loose ball with six seconds to play, then dribbled nearly the length of the court before taking a desperation shot against some stiff defense. The ball bounced off the rim, setting off a Mountain View celebration on Skyview’s home court.
Mountain View will host a one-game playoff against Eastlake of Sammamish for a state berth at 7 p.m. Saturday. Skyview, the 4A Greater St. Helens League champion, will travel Saturday to play in its winner-to-state, loser-out game.
Saturday will bring its own emotional swings for the Thunder. But on Thursday, it was all about the trophy, of cutting down the nets.
“Second place I don’t know how many times,” Cranston said. “We were always knocking on the door, but geez.”
He was watching from afar as his players cut down a net.
“I’ll let the kids enjoy that. They’re the ones who earned it,” the coach said.
His players would have none of it. Chanting “Cranny! Cranny! Cranny!” they demanded he cut the last of the netting.
“It feels good to be the first team to win it for him, and to finish off my senior year with this,” Rashan Williams said. “I don’t know how else to explain it.”
Mountain View has had several standout players in Cranston’s career. Lucas Swanson, a senior, is one of them. He, too, was thinking more than about himself or only this team.
“It is absolutely insane. This is a great feeling to finally win one for all the people who’ve played for our school,” Swanson said. “It’s not just for us, but for the whole program and everything that Mountain View has done.”
Swanson, Wiliams, and White were together on the freshman team, too.
“This is a dream come true,” White said. “We have been waiting for this since freshman year. This is a big accomplishment for the seniors.”
It took all 32 minutes to make it happen Thursday.
Mountain View pushed a four-point advantage to 11 at 61-50 with 3:21 to play before the Storm went on a roll. Sam Perry connected on a 3-pointer, and Brian Cairns’ offensive rebound and putback was another plus for Skyview.
A free throw or two here and a defensive stop continued the comeback for the Storm. Tyler Paluck, who led Skyview with 17 points, swished a 3-pointer with 39 seconds left for the final points of the game.
Mountain View would take a timeout with 21 seconds remaining. When play resumed, Skyview tried to play defense before committing a foul, and it worked. The ball was knocked loose, and a wild scramble led to Chatman getting the ball.
“Stop Chatman,” Swanson said, recalling his thoughts on the floor. “He’s a great player. Everybody swarmed to him, and he didn’t get a good look. It was for the win.”
Dominique Lincoln was the last defender, and he actually knocked the ball out of Chatman’s hands for a split second. Chatman regained possession and had to throw up an off-balance shot.
“I had to do my job,” said Lincoln, who also finished with 11 points. “A blessing from God, I did my job.”
Skyview coach Bob Benson said his team was rusty after a long break, but he saw a lot of good things from his squad, too.
“We did a great job coming back and putting pressure on Mountain View,” Benson said. “We were five seconds away from winning it. But we just made too many mistakes.”
The Thunder opened Thursday’s game like they wanted to end it in a hurry, pushing out to a 18-4 lead that included two 3-pointers by Swanson and one each from White and Lincoln, who finished with 11 points.
Skyview weathered that spurt, though, and tied the game in the second quarter, trailing by two at the half. Chatman scored all 14 of his points in the first half, including nine in that second period.
Both teams were hot in third quarter, with Mountain View taking a 50-46 lead into the final quarter.
Mountain View would get the double-digit lead, then had to hold off the Storm one more time.
That did not seem to bother the Thunder, though. Not after the final horn, not after winning that elusive district championship.
“Finally, we can hang this up in our closet at Mountain View,” White said, holding the trophy.
