Clark County had nine basketball teams in the state regional round last week. Four of them won, and all four games were decided in the fourth quarter.
The Union boys did end up winning by 12 points, but the Titans trailed by 10 with six minutes to play.
The King’s Way Christian boys won in overtime, surviving a wild finish in regulation.
The Prairie girls led almost their entire game, only to have to hold off a late charge in a two-point victory. Click here to read our story on the Falcons.
Clark County had nine basketball teams in the state regional round last week. Four of them won, and all four games were decided in the fourth quarter.
The Union boys did end up winning by 12 points, but the Titans trailed by 10 with six minutes to play.
The King's Way Christian boys won in overtime, surviving a wild finish in regulation.
The Prairie girls led almost their entire game, only to have to hold off a late charge in a two-point victory. Click here to read our story on the Falcons.
The Skyview girls got the benefit of a call none of them expected to get and won by a point. Click here to read our story on the Storm.
Survive and advance. That's all that matters at this point.
These four teams did just that. We will share their stories, Wednesday and Thursday, on just how they managed to survive. And now that they have advanced, they explain what they learned from their experiences at regionals.
The Skyview girls got the benefit of a call none of them expected to get and won by a point. Click here to read our story on the Storm.
Survive and advance. That’s all that matters at this point.
These four teams did just that. We will share their stories, Wednesday and Thursday, on just how they managed to survive. And now that they have advanced, they explain what they learned from their experiences at regionals.
Someone in the Twitter world counted up all of the regional basketball games, in all classifications, and counted the number of “blowouts” there were Friday and Saturday.
The definition of said blowout was any game that ended in a double-digit margin of victory.
Well, the Union Titans won by 12 points in their Class 4A state regional boys basketball game against Curtis on Friday night, clinching a spot to the 4A state quarterfinals in the Tacoma Dome.
Anyone who witnessed the game, though, knows it was not a blowout. In fact, the only team that looked like it would get blown out was Union. For the first 26 game minutes, the Titans were stuck, just couldn’t get moving in a positive direction. With just more than six minutes to play, Curtis had a 10-point lead.
Then Cole Weatherspoon happened.
Then Cameron Cranston happened.
Micah Paulson, too.
Then, all of the Titans, their coaches, and yes, even their fans, willed each other to a 24-2 run to win by 12 points.
“We just all wanted this so bad, the feeling of going to the Tacoma Dome,” said Cole Weatherspoon, who had a key steal in the rally and did a little bit of everything all night for the Titans.
Weatherspoon said the Titans never figured they were out of the game. But he did start to get anxious.
“I looked up (at the scoreboard) and I was like, ‘We have to figure it out and start executing,'” he said.
It was almost perfect execution, those final six minutes, limiting Curtis to just two free throws. Final score: 62-50.
Easy, right?
“That was the closest 12-point game I’ve ever been a part of,” Union coach Blake Conley said.
Now the Titans hope that playing a team as aggressive and athletic as Curtis will help this week in the dome. Union (22-1) will face Issaquah (20-5) at 2 p.m. Thursday.
“We hadn’t played a team that fast all year,” Conley said. “We knew it would take a little adjustment. We’re going to see teams like that, but now it won’t be the first time we’ve seen anybody like that. Playing Curtis is going to get us prepared to play Issaquah.”
From the start, too, Weatherspoon said. No more of this falling behind early stuff.
“We have to come out ready and composed,” Weatherspoon said. “Get on them early so we don’t have to battle back the rest of the game. That’s what we want Thursday. We want to come prepared, come out ready to play.”
