Playing on their home court for the final time this season, the Seton Catholic boys basketball team gave its five seniors a proper sendoff.
The Cougars’ closing act at home, an 85-60 win over La Center in the Class 1A District 4 semifinals Wednesday, clinched a 1A state tournament berth and moved them to the 1A district championship for the second consecutive season. Seton will face Fort Vancouver in the championship game Saturday, currently scheduled for 7 p.m. at Centralia High School.
Seton Catholic’s ultimate goal is to make a deep state playoff run at the Yakima Valley SunDome two weeks from now, but first, the Cougars soaked in the final moments playing on their home court. Seton Catholic coach Donald Wilson subbed out each of his five seniors, Tyler Tran, Mason Glassmire, Brady Angelo, Rico George and Lance Lee, late in the fourth quarter to rounds of applause.
“This game was full of energy, I feel like, so it was a super fun game to play in,” Angelo said. “One thing I’m gonna miss is just the warmups and being with the team beforehand in the locker room and weight room. But overall, the game was a very fun game and it was a good way to end.”
“For the seniors, I’ve been playing with some these guys since third grade, or even before,” George added. “So, to have this last moment together, it’s really special for us and something we’ve been talking about for a while.”
Fun was the operative word for Seton Catholic players in describing their performance, particularly during a fast-paced second quarter when the Cougars outscored the Wildcats 31-11 by using an aggressive defense that forced turnovers at will and led to easy baskets in transition.
Seton Catholic led 20-12 after scoring two quick baskets to open the quarter, prompting a timeout from the La Center bench.
The Cougars were just getting started.
Angelo, George and Wilson combined to score 27 of the Cougars’ points, including the exclamation point with under a minute left — a Wilson alley-oop dunk thrown off the glass by Angelo.
“We went into a 2-3 (zone), they were making some bad passes so we got the deflections and then we turned it over into fastbreak points,” Angelo said. “We had a cool lob play off the backboard to Kaiden which was big … It was just a very fun second quarter and I feel like that was the point where we closed the game out.”
The Cougars held a commanding 47-23 lead at halftime and led by as many as 30 points in the third quarter.
“That’s kind of like every game, especially at home, we make it really fun,” George said. “You see us all smiling, the coaches are smiling, that’s just kind of the culture we’ve built here.”
Angelo scored a game-high 30 points, including six 3-pointers, Wilson scored 18 points, George had 12 points and Lee added 11 points for the Cougars, who also scored 100 points to open the district playoffs last Saturday against Columbia-White Salmon.
Players believe their two most recent wins are indicative of a team hitting their peak heading into the stretch run of the postseason — a scary proposition for 1A teams statewide.
“I think we’re just clicking at the right time,” Angelo said. “Practices are probably the best practices we’ve had all year. Overall, we’re just hitting our shots, and really I feel like our team as a whole is just clicking at the right time.”
SETON CATHOLIC 85, LA CENTER 60
LA CENTER — Sharp Young 2, Jonathan Suhajda 0, Callum Bradley 6, Peyton Larkin 3, Parker McKinney 8, Zayne Latham 14, Jayce Grotte 3, Logan Rainey 6, Kaden Kohn 8, Gunnar Schockelt 8, Maddox Potter 2. Totals 23 (6) 6-10 60.
SETON CATHOLIC — Tyler Tran 3, Mason Glassmire 2, Brady Angelo 30, Rico George 12, Lance Lee 11, Kiet Nguyen 2, Roberto Valdez 5, Kaiden Wilson 18, Ben Deochand 0, Max Meyer 2, Isaiah Jackson 0. Totals 33 (11) 8-10 85.
La Center 12 11 16 21—60
Seton Catholic 16 31 24 14—85
