By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
In the final game of the boys state 3A semifinals, the Lincoln Abes and the Eastside Catholic Crusaders battled to the final buzzer to determine who would face Rainier Beach in the state championship game tonight at the Tacoma Dome.
The Crusaders struck first as Eastside Catholic won the opening tip and Yabi Aklog quickly darted down the court for a shot off the glass, scoring the first points of the game. The Abes were up to the task and quickly responded, as Davion Shareef-Dulanaey scored five points to lead a 7-0 run by Lincoln. The teams would then exchange baskets before the Crusaders’ Tyson McNeal connected on a free-throw attempt. The Abes would further extend their lead with three-point shots from Kasey Williams and Shareef-Dulanaey, forcing Eastside Catholic to call a timeout with 2:21 left in the first quarter and Lincoln leading 13-5.
After the timeout, McNeal scored off the glass for the Crusaders, Lincoln’s Oshea Lamar drained a three-point shot, and Aklog added a basket under the rim in the final two minutes as the Abes held a 16-9 lead heading into the second quarter.
Eastside Catholic’s London Walsh started the second quarter with a three-point shot, as the Crusaders began chipping away at the Abes’ lead. Shareef-Dulanaey would knock down a pair of free throws before the Crusaders went on a very quick 7-0 run to take their first lead of the game at 19-18, forcing a Lincoln timeout with 5:02 left in the first half. Coming out of the break, Lincoln’s Justus Holt had a huge block on the Crusaders’ Anthony Williams, but Walsh responded immediately after an Abe turnover with a three-pointer, pushing Eastside Catholic’s lead to 22-18. Lamar was sent to the free-throw line, where he successfully converted the three-point play. But it was Walsh who struck again with another three-point shot to give Eastside Catholic a 25-21 lead.
With about two minutes in the first half and the Crusaders leading 25-24, Eastside Catholic went on a 10-0 run, with three-point shots from both Steven Sun and Micah Rouson, a shot off the glass from Williams, and one last bucket from Aklog right under the hoop, extending the Crusaders’ lead to 35-24. However, after Aklog’s basket, he received a technical foul and was ejected from the game. To close the second quarter, Kasey Williams converted two baskets at the line, and Shareef-Dulanaey made another three-pointer, making the score 35-29 in favor of the Crusaders going into halftime. Aklog, the 6’11” senior center, had 12 points and 8 rebounds to lead the Crusaders before his ejection. Meanwhile, Shareef-Dulanaey finished the first half with 16 points and 4 rebounds for the Abes.
Lincoln struck first in the second half, as Holt scored a basket right as the shot clock expired, and Shareef-Dulanaey followed with another three-point shot, narrowing the gap to 35-34. The Crusaders responded with a 9-0 run, including McNeal shooting two technical foul shots, Sun converting two shots at the free-throw line right behind him, and then sinking a three-point shot to extend the Eastside Catholic lead to 44-34. With under 4 minutes left in the third quarter, the Abes embarked on their own 7-0 run, including two three-pointers from Shareef-Dulanaey, to trim Eastside Catholic’s lead to 44-40.
After a timeout, the Crusaders’ Trey Garrett checked into the game and immediately hit a three-point shot to push the score to 47-40. With a minute left on the clock, the Abes made three out of four shots from the free-throw line, and McNeal, with an assist from Garrett, slammed down a dunk for the Crusaders, as they led 49-43 heading into the fourth quarter.
As the fourth quarter began, the Abes began to make their push toward victory. Kasey Williams made a shot off the glass and followed with a successful three-point play to cut the Crusaders’ lead to one point, 49-48. However, Williams soon picked up his fourth foul and checked out of the game momentarily. The Crusaders and the Abes traded baskets, with the Crusaders’ Micah Rouson chipping in 7 points and Williams, who had checked back into the game, adding 4 points for the Abes before fouling out of the game with 2:50 remaining and the Crusaders leading 60-57. However, Shareef-Dulanaey continued to dominate the court, with a two-point conversion at the line and a three-pointer to give his team a 64-62 lead with one minute left in the game.
The two teams took turns calling timeouts in the game’s final moments, and Eastside Catholic took possession of the ball with 8 seconds left in the game. With a trip to the championship game on the line, Eastside Catholic went to Rouson for a game-winning three-point attempt, but it was Shareef-Dulanaey who made the game-winning play as he swatted Rouson’s shot attempt out of bounds to secure a 64-62 victory and a trip to the championship game for the Abes.
Shareef-Dulanaey led the Abes with 32 points and 6 rebounds, while the Crusaders were led by Aklog and McNeal, who both finished the game with 12 points.
After the game, Lincoln head coach Ryan Rogers was grinning from ear to ear about advancing to the championship game.
“Oh my gosh. Eastside Catholic freaking competed the whole time. They are a really good and strong team, and they played very composed without their best player on the court,” said Rogers. “Huge props to them for making the game very difficult [for us].”
Pictorial Highlights of Lincoln vs Eastside Catholic
