TACOMA — There was a sequence — long before the final buzzer and the celebration and this most improbable of state championships — that sums up the Union Titans as well as anything.
It involved three missed shots, three offensive rebounds, and a 3-pointer by somebody who played two minutes all night.
How else do you sum up a 51-50 victory over previously undefeated Enumclaw? Or a rally from a nine-point deficit in the final quarter? Or a state championship by a team that lost nine times this season?
How else do you explain the Titans pulling out their final two games in the final seconds, as though their talent and coaching were exceeded only by their undying belief?
Union wins the state championship? You might as well try explaining a sunset in all its inexplicable glory.
Which brings us to that sequence midway through the third quarter. The Titans had a shot blocked and got the rebound. They missed a 3-point attempt, and 5-foot-10 Chris Morgan pit-bulled his way for the rebound. They had another shot blocked.
The rejection bounced out to Vishal Sanghera, who calmly drained a 3-pointer.
“All Coach says is get ready whenever I need you,” said Sanghera, a senior who played a total of 12 minutes in four tournament games. “I know my role on the team.”
Which leaves us with this: Union, which reached the state title game and the semifinals the past two football seasons, might actually be a basketball school. But it took an unlikely 17-7 fourth quarter to prove it.
“The kids had a look, first time in a while I’ve seen it, they were a little antsy,” coach Maco Hamilton said. “I said, ‘Guys, relax. There’s plenty of time.’ ”
Or, as key reserve Taylor Nelson said, “One thing I thought is that if we go down, we’re going down with a fight.”
A fight it was. And if anything is demonstrated by Union’s title, it’s that you can’t measure heart in wins and losses.
For there was Kyle Holmes, scoring all six of his points in the fourth quarter. And there was Tanner Nelson, tossing in a jump hook to tie the game with 2:20 to play. And there was Morgan, pulling down a defensive rebound in traffic with 18 seconds to go and Union trailing by one point, then finding an opening in the defense and drawing a foul.
With 8.4 seconds to go, he made two free throws to give his team the lead.
“Can you write that I love Chris?” senior Mitch Saylor asked.
There was a lot of love in the postgame celebration, the kind of joy that only winning can deliver. And when Ryan Greenen, a teammate who suffered a brain injury three years ago, was helped up the ladder to help cut down the nets, there were more than a few misty eyes in the crowd.
And so Union is the Class 3A champion in boys basketball. And to put the victory into musical terms, it was a night for jazz lovers. Enumclaw plays like a symphony, all organization and precision and direction. Union turns basketball into free-flowing improvisation.
On Saturday night, the Titans were Miles Davis, ignoring their nine-loss pedigree and delivering a virtuoso performance.
“Once we got to the tournament,” Taylor Nelson said, “anything could happen.”
Even the most improbable of outcomes.
Greg Jayne is Sports editor of The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4531, or by e-mail at greg.jayne@columbian.com. To read his blog, go to columbian.com/weblogs/GregJayne
