O’Dea 64, Bellevue 57
The game opened in a tightly contested battle between the O’Dea Fighting Irish and the Bellevue Wolverines. O’Dea led the first quarter, 12-11, with Brian Webster leading the way for the Fighting Irish with five points, including a three-pointer. Although Bellevue matched the intensity, Nick Norrah led the Wolverines with five points of his own.
The second quarter seemingly mirrored the first, with both teams once again scoring 12 and 11 points, respectively. Jackson Skaggs stepped up for Bellevue, adding seven second-quarter points to keep the Wolverines close. Despite Bellevue’s effort, O’Dea carried a slight 24-22 lead into halftime.
Coming out of halftime, O’Dea began to create a bit of distance. Josiah Bowman sparked the Fighting Irish offense in the third quarter, scoring eight of the team’s 21 third-quarter points. Bellevue struggled to keep up with O’Dea’s pace, though Eduardo Mollina contributed seven of the Wolverines’ 15 third-quarter points. By the end of the third quarter, O’Dea had extended its lead to 45-37.
Despite 20 combined points from Carter, King, Mollina and Jones, the Wolverines couldn’t overcome a dominant fourth-quarter push by O’Dea. Led by Levi Orbino and Bowman, the Fighting Irish poured in 19 points in the final period to secure a 64-57 victory over Bellevue. O’Dea now advances to face the Rainier Beach Vikings on Saturday in the District Championship game.
For O’Dea, Webster finished the game with 15 points, while Bowman followed with 14 points. For Bellevue, Mollina finished the game with 17 points to lead the Wolverines.
Rainier Beach 80, Eastside Catholic 68
In the opening quarter, the two top Metro League teams fought hard as both teams kept the score in close range. The Vikings’ Wes Armstrong scored the first points of the night for Rainier Beach, while Tyran Stokes added a basket and one point at the line, and Tytan McNeal drained a three-point shot for the first points for the Crusaders, as the Vikings held an early 5-3 lead. From there on out, the score alternated back and forth very quickly. McNeal finished the first quarter scoring 12 of Eastside Catholic’s 17 points, including two dunks, and both KJ Hightower and Stokes finished the first quarter with nine points each to lead the Vikings. However, it was a buzzer-beater by Hightower that gave the Vikings a 21-17 lead heading into the second quarter.
To start the second quarter, the Vikings quickly stretched their lead, with baskets from Knowledge Wright, Micah Ili-Meneese and Stokes, making the score 26-17. Eastside Catholic’s
London Walsh scored off the backboard to end the Vikings’ run. The possessions alternated quickly, including multiple trips to the line by Eastside’s Yabi Aklog and Rainier Beach’s Stokes. With the score at 33-30 in favor of Rainier Beach, McNeal picked up his third foul, subbing out and sending Stokes to the line, where he pushed the score to 34-30. In the final minute of the second quarter, the Crusaders’ Steven Sun hit a jump shot to cut the deficit down to 35-33, but Stokes responded immediately with a basket, followed by a steal and dunk, securing 19 first-half points and a 39-35 Rainier Beach lead as they headed into halftime. McNeal finished the first half with 16 points to lead the Crusaders.
Rainier Beach began the second half strong, as they got scoring contributions from Marques Ili-Meneese, Micah Ili-Meneese, Armstrong and McNeal to take a 45-35 lead. However, the Crusaders then went on a 10-0 run, led by McNeal, Sun, Aklog and Trey Garrett, to tie the game at 45-45. Stokes, who had missed his first four shot attempts of the third quarter, stopped the run to give his team a two-point lead at 47-45. The score continued to alternate until Aklog was sent to the line on a three-point play, giving the Crusaders a 53-51 lead. Stokes followed with a smooth layup to tie the game at 53-53. To close out the third quarter, Stokes, Armstrong and Marques Ili-Meneese each added a basket of their own to stretch the Vikings’ lead to 57-53.
In the fourth quarter, the Vikings started where they left off at the end of the third quarter as Hightower added a basket, pushing their lead to 59-53. Aklog then stopped the 6-0 run with a layup, making the score 59-55. However, Marques Ili-Meneese really shined during the quarter, making multiple shots and taking a few trips to the line, bringing the score to 68-60 after a free throw by Stokes. McNeal drained back-to-back three-point shots on the Crusaders’ next two possessions, cutting the lead down to 70-66. Aklog followed with a quick two points at the line to narrow the gap even more to 70-68 in favor of Rainier Beach. However, Rainier Beach closed out the game on an 8-0 run, led by Stokes, Wright and Marques Ili-Meneese, making the score 78-68 with a minute left in the game. McNeal then picked up his fourth foul, sending Stokes to the line, where he converted both free throws, stretching the Vikings’ lead to 80-68. With just seconds left on the clock, Rainier Beach respectfully ran out the clock and secured a 12-point win over Eastside Catholic.
Stokes finished the night with 35 points to lead Rainier Beach, and McNeal finished the night with 28 points to lead Eastside Catholic.
