SPOKANE — King’s Way Christian played great defense in the state 1B boys basketball semifinals.
Almire/Coulee-Hartline played better.
The Warriors limited the Knights to 25.6 percent shooting, including a dismal 15 percent in the first half, and clawed into the championship game with a 53-31 victory Friday night at the Spokane Arena.
“Give them a lot of credit,” King’s Way coach Alex Kirk said. “In a lot of ways we’re carbon copies of each other. We try to take away stuff inside and force people to make contested jump shots and tonight I think I could have kicked more in than the kids threw in.”
King’s Way (18-8) will play will play Neah Bay (20-4) for the third place Saturday, the first boys basketball trophy in school history.
Thanks to their defense, the Knights weren’t eliminated early.
Despite missing their first nine shots and going 1 for 12 in the first quarter they trailed just 10-3. They didn’t get on the board until Chris Crenshaw hit a 3-pointer with 53 seconds left.
Then they promptly went cold again, missing their first six shots of the second quarter, before Jay Becker scored in the lane and Carter Coval followed with a three-point play.
ACH (21-6) wasn’t appreciably better, leading just 16-8 at halftime. But after shooting 33 percent in the first half the Warriors hit 56.6 percent in the second and dominated the boards 35-17.
The Knights picked it up offensively in the second half, scoring less than a minute into the third quarter on a 3 by Crenshaw, who had 11 points, but the Warriors also found their rhythm. Paced by Colin Deyarmin’s two 3’s in the quarter, ACH upped its lead to 34-21.
But the offense disappeared again and the Warriors pulled away.
“I ask them a lot of times to take after me,” Kirk said. “I wasn’t very good as a player but I played hard. Unfortunately tonight they did take after me because that’s about how I shoot it.”
Though KWC did an admirable job on ACH senior star Derek Isaack, who was 11 below his average with 17 points on 7 of 19 shooting, they didn’t have an answer for Deyarmin. The junior had 15 points, hitting 5 of 6 including all three of his 3’s, with four assists and innumerable hustle plays.
“He is their glue guy but even more than that he’s their emotional leader,” Kirk said. “They were exactly what we thought. … You start throwing a few in and your defense picks up, your rebounding. We just never could get it going offensively. I give them a lot of credit.”
