YAKIMA — As the Columbia River boys basketball team ran back to the locker room celebrating its most consequential win of the season, the Rapids yelled two words that pretty well summed up the last two weeks.
“Nobody believed!” Players repeated again and again.
That is, except the Rapids themselves.
The No. 11 seed Rapids took down No. 1 Lynden 41-38 on Friday morning in the Class 2A state fourth-place semifinals after facing a first-half deficit as large as 15 points.
The bounce-back win, after suffering a loss to Selah in the quarterfinals Thursday, made certain the Rapids will take home their first state trophy since 2018. River will face 2A Greater St. Helens League foe Mark Morris in the fourth-place game on Saturday at 8 a.m.
“We believe because we know how good of a group we are,” said River’s John Reeder, one of five seniors on the team. “Even though we suffered a bad loss last game, we know it’s not (us) playing to our full strengths. We know if we can, we can do stuff like what we just did.”
River coach Mark Ganter called Friday’s matchup “David versus Goliath,” both in seeding and stature.
“Like Muhammad Ali said, we shook up the world,” Ganter said.
Lynden’s Brant Heppner, a 6-foot-5 post, hammered River in the paint with 19 points and 10 rebounds in the first half, helping the Lions gain a 25-16 lead at halftime.
The undersized Rapids recognized they had to crash the boards harder and key in on Heppner. They held Lynden to just 13 points in the second half.
Seniors Ari Richardson and Aaron Hoey hit back-to-back 3-pointers to tie the game at the end of the third quarter, before River took its first lead of the game, 31-30, on a Richardson free throw one minute into the fourth.
“That could’ve been our last game, so we just went out there and put it all on the floor,” Hoey said. “We stuck with them and it gave us hope. We just went out there and kept playing.”
With six lead changes in the fourth, the Rapids took control for good when Richardson hit two free throws at the 1:57 mark. Richardson, who finished with 13 points, went 6 for 6 from the line inside the final two minutes. Hoey led the Rapids with 15 points and Reeder had a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds.
After finishing third in the 2A GSHL behind fellow state quarterfinalists R.A. Long and Mark Morris, River used its No. 11 seed as motivation entering the 2A state tournament.
Seeding is just a number, as the Rapids showed in handing No. 1 Lynden only its third loss of the season, and second in as many days after falling to No. 10 Prosser in the quarterfinals.
“We were focused,” Richardson said.
COLUMBIA RIVER 41, LYNDEN 38
COLUMBIA RIVER (21-6) — Alex Pont 0, Ari Richardson 13, Kellen Clary 2, John Reeder 10, Tyler Miles 0, Luca Phillips 1, Aaron Hoey 15. Totals 15 (2) 9-13 41.
LYNDEN (25-3) — Jayden Navarre 0, Gordy Bedlington 0, Brody Price 0, Malachi Bowman 0, Malachi Koenen 0, Jack Stapleton 8, Brant Heppner 25, Ty Jorgenson 3, Spencer Adams 2. Totals 14 (1) 9-14 38.
Col. River 6 10 14 11—41
Lynden 15 10 5 8—38
