By RayJaun Stelly, The Seattle Medium
Eighth-seeded Rainier Beach and 16th-seeded Shorecrest met in the WIAA state 3A tournament’s round of 12. Despite a regional tournament loss to Mt. Spokane last week, Rainier Beach has been successful throughout the years during this state tournament, and they’d have to get past the Highlanders to advance to the next round of this year’s tournament.
Shorecrest, winners of their last three games, looked to lean on Keaine Silimon, Disma Kagarabi, and the Wesco 3A league’s most valuable player, Parker Baumann, to advance to the quarterfinals to face the Garfield Bulldogs.
The game would start in a back-and-forth scoring matchup between both teams. On the Highlander side, it was Silimon leading with his ability to facilitate his team’s offense and score. Kagarabi, Shorecrest’s defensive anchor, challenged shots, which led to offensive opportunities for him and his teammates.
For the Vikings, it was scoring by committee as Kaden Powers got off to a hot start, while Jeremiah White made a bank shot, and Gurske chipped in a quick five points, including a buzzer-beating three-point shot at the end of the first quarter.
After holding a 21-15 lead after the first quarter, Shorecrest would start to take over the game in the second quarter. Offensively, the Highlanders were able to score easy points in transition and finish through contact to get to the free-throw line. Defensively, they made things extremely difficult for Rainier Beach by closing out hard to three-point shooters, denying them the ball on passes, clogging the paint, and blocking shots on drives.
Although it had appeared Shorecrest was in complete control of the game, the Vikings would close the second quarter strong. Powers would finish a layup despite contact, Jamel Duncan made a baseline jump shot, Larry Sims III finished in the post, and an Mpouli steal would lead to a dunk at the end of the quarter, as the Viking trailed 33-26 at halftime.
Shorecrest finished the half shooting 45% from the field and 40% from three-point range. Silimon led all scorers with 11 points while shooting 67% from the field.
With the momentum in the balance, Shorecrest would grab hold of it for an electric third quarter. Defensively, they would continue to force Rainier Beach into difficult shots and get steals which they converted into easy scoring opportunities. All things combined, Shorecrest allowed the Vikings to score just four points in the third quarter.
Offensively, the Highlanders’ Baumann exploded for 10 points, making everything from three-pointers to fade-away jump shots, and pump-faking a defender before hitting a floater, as he managed to score at will against Rainier Beach defenders.
Baumann finished the game with 20 points and 10 rebounds, which helped Shorecrest pull off a 69-44 upset victory over Rainier Beach and extend their win streak to four games.
Now with Garfield up as their next opponent, Highlander guard Silimon, who finished with 15 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, spoke about the mindset of his team going into the next game, “We’re coming in like they’re just regular humans. At the end of the day, they got a record but we play hard, aggressive, and in our system.”
