By RayJaun Stelly, The Seattle Medium
Rainier Beach and Eastside Catholic shocked the entire basketball community as they both found themselves in this year’s Metro League Championship. The Vikings were seeded third and the Crusaders fourth pulled off upsets to kick off the beginning of postseason play. After beating Seattle Prep 69-59 at home, Rainier Beach was back on the road heading to play O’Dea whom they’ve yet to beat this season.
Rainier Beach, the number three seed in the Metro League tournament, earned their way into the championship game thanks to a late-game layup by guard Miles Gurske to give to the Vikings a 49-48 upset win over second-seeded O’Dea in a semifinal matchup.
Eastside Catholic punched their ticket to the championship game as they handed the top-seeded Garfield Bulldogs their first loss of the season.
Coming into the game, Rainier Beach had won the season series (2-0) against Eastside Catholic, which made the game much more enticing, leaving fans wondering if the Vikings could win a third time or if the Crusaders could get their first win of the season over Rainier Beach and secure a league title in the process.
On the Vikings’ side was First-Team All-Metro Miles Gurske and Metro Co-Defensive Player of The Year Ryan Mpouli, and for Eastside Catholic it was First-Team All-Metro Jacob Cofie. With three of the league’s best players in action, this contest was action-packed for all four quarters.
From the opening tip, the Crusaders’ Cofie started the game in a dominant fashion and could not be stopped. From scoring the game’s first six points, he’d go on to make spin-away jump shots from the post, a put-back layup, and a dunk that got fans off their feet. Despite scoring 12 of his teams’ 16 points in the first quarter, Rainier Beach’s Miles Gurske lifted a response.
Gurske’s back-to-back three-pointers along with an alley-oop pass to Mpouli initiated an 8-0 scoring run, and an Eastside Catholic timeout to stop the bleeding. Despite both teams taking turns sharing the momentum, the Vikings found themselves down 16-12 going into the second quarter.
Eastside Catholic’s terrific start rolled over into the second quarter as Alex Elston’s acrobatic layups sparked another Crusaders burst of momentum. Following Elston’s basket, Cofie continued to not only score in a variety of ways but defensively he dominated by rebounding, altering, and blocking shots which helped extend Eastside Catholic’s lead from four to nine.
Facing their largest deficit of the game, Rainier Beach would lean on their All-Metro League duo of Gurske and Mpouli to lead the way. All it took was another Gurske three-pointers to start the comeback, then Mpouli displayed why he earned his selection by getting steals and deflections, which he turned into points for himself and his teammates.
Rainier Beach’s run consisted of them holding their opponent to just a nine-point quarter while they scored 20, giving themselves a 32-25 lead going into halftime with everything appearing to work in their favor.
After building themselves a lead and watching it vanish instantly, Eastside Catholic now had to dig themselves out of a seven-point hole. Aside from Cofie essentially having his fingerprints all over the game, it was now time for other teammates to rise to the occasion.
Kayden Greene, Kayden Lamebull-Ingram, and Ishe Kanhukamwe were key in the Crusaders’ successful third-quarter comeback. Greene started things off with a corner three-pointer, followed by stealing the ball from Rainier Beach. Kanhukamwe went on a personal 6-0 scoring run, and Lamebull-Ingram’s layup as the quarter ended helped solidify the Crusaders’ lead.
Eastside Catholic’s defense, which forced numerous turnovers, only allowed Rainier Beach to score 8 points and allowed the Crusaders to get out in transition for easy baskets. Even in half-court sets, the Crusaders picked a part Rainier Beach’s defense for open shots all over the floor.
Finding themselves down 44-40, Rainier Beach had eight minutes to make one last push. The Vikings’ Mpouli would steal the ball and finish with a one-handed dunk to begin the fourth quarter, yet his momentum would be hindered as he picked up his fourth foul.
With both teams at a standstill, and being careless with possessions or missing open shots, fans were left to wonder which team was going to flip the switch, and with a 46-44 lead and 6:12 remaining Eastside Catholic Head Coach Brent Merritt called a timeout to regroup his team.
The timeout started a series of positive events as Cofie would block a shot that turned into a Greene three-pointer, he then followed that up by dunking out of his signature post-move. Eastside Catholic’s execution down the stretch was critical on both ends of the floor and their ability to make free throws helped fend off a heroic comeback attempt by Rainier Beach.
Despite losing to the Vikings twice, Eastside Catholic managed to prevail with a 62-56 win over Rainier Beach to become this year’s Metro League Champions. Earning the number one seeding going into districts, the Crusaders will await the winner between West Seattle and Mercer Island. Rainier Beach, which holds the number two seed, will face either O’Dea or Nathan Hale.
