The final night of the SeaKing District basketball tournament was little more than a coronation. It began with the Garfield boys outscoring Bellevue 25-8 during the second quarter to open up a 45-23 lead at halftime, a margin far too steep for the overmatched Wolverines to overcome. The final was 87-57. And it continued in the nightcap with the Bellevue girls, who started the third quarter of their title contest against Bishop Blanchet with an 18-0 run that turned a three-point game at the intermission into a relative rout. The No. 1 Bellevue girls improved to 22-0 with their 67-53 win on Saturday, and the top-ranked Bulldog boys are now 22-2.
Garfield found itself with a far easier championship game matchup than coach Ed Haskins would have anticipated a week ago. This was supposed to be round three in the annual series between the Bulldogs and Rainier Beach, currently the state’s best rivalry in any sport, but the Vikings let down their end of the bargain with a stunning loss to O’Dea in the district quarterfinals. So instead, Bellevue — a fine team, but not the sort that was ever going to make the Bulldogs nervous. The Wolverines’ pick-and-roll tandem of Sharif Khan and Mikey Henn created sporadic offense in defeat, combining for 39 points by my count, but it wasn’t nearly enough to keep pace with a team featuring at least six future Division I players.
Jaylen Nowell led the way for Garfield with 24 points on what seemed like 80 percent shooting, followed by 15 points from Alphonso Anderson and 11 from Jashaun Agosto. The Bulldogs’ athleticism is just so astounding, whether it’s the 5-foot-10 Agosto blurring past defenders in the open court or 6-foot-9 sophomore J’Raan Brooks disdainfully swatting away layup attempts. Daejon Davis, who’s committed to the UW, didn’t score until late in the third quarter — when he finished an alley-oop from freshman P.J. Fuller — and it didn’t matter in the slightest. Garfield has plenty of other sources of offense. And the Bulldogs play well together, often stringing together quick interior passing that leaves defenders’ heads spinning.
On Saturday, they also brought a hellacious defense, led by Agosto, one of the area’s premier on-ball annoyances. It felt like a small victory every time Bellevue got across midcourt. And it didn’t get any easier as the game went on. Garfield pressed full-court when it was tied 6-6 in the first quarter, and Garfield pressed full-court when they led by 36 points in the fourth quarter. Up 77-46 with 5:00 to go, Haskins called a timeout to bring his starters back in.
The girls game at least avoided getting that far out of hand. Coming in, it was on paper a much closer matchup. Led by Russell Wilson’s little sister Anna, Bellevue has been destroying teams by 40 points a game, but Bishop Blanchet is no slouch itself, having topped West Seattle the week before to win the Metro tournament, one of the state’s deepest leagues. This figured to be a showdown between two loaded frontcourts, with Wilson and fellow guard Quinessa Caylao-Do perhaps providing the Wolverines a slight backcourt edge.
The first two quarters were polar opposites. Bellevue opened up a 23-11 edge after one, and Blanchet drew back to within 32-29 at the break. With Wilson in foul trouble, Caylao-Do and forward Shelby Cansler led the way for Bellevue, combining for 20 points. The 6-foot-1 Cansler was a monster all night, blocking shots, running the floor and knocking down 3s despite rolling her ankle early on and missing a good chunk of time. I had her with 20 points for the night. Blanchet star Jadyn Bush played well too, finishing with 16, but struggled at times against Bellevue’s length inside. Most teams at this level have a 6-footer or two, but I haven’t seen anyone who can match up with Bellevue depth of size — the roster lists five players at 6-foot-1 or taller, and I believe it. These guys are huge.
The Wolverines wasted no time in the third quarter. In the first two minutes out of the break, Wilson hit a pair of 3-pointers and Caylao-Do added another to give Bellevue a 12-point lead. It was 50-29 before Blanchet finally got a bucket.
There was another major 3A girls tilt on Saturday night: Lynnwood against Arlington for the Wesco title, a battle between two teams who entered the game 22-0. The defending state-champion Royals absolutely wiped the floor with the Eagles, blasting them 60-22. Class 3A is stacked, including West Seattle, Lincoln, and plenty of other teams with sparkly records and lofty goals. But it’s difficult not to already be looking forward to a Lynnwood-Bellevue showdown for the state title. The Anna Wilson-Mikayla Pivec battle alone would be worth the price of admission.
In earlier action Saturday at Bellevue College, the aforementioned Vikings of Rainier Beach found themselves battling Mercer Island for their postseason lives. After falling 67-57 to O’Dea during the district quarterfinals, Beach left itself needing two straight wins just to make the state regional round of 16. The Islanders hung around longer than most would have expected. Beach’s lead was just 28-26 at the half, as Vikings star Sam Cunliffe struggled to get going on offense — although he did drain a three-quarter-court shot a split-second after the first-quarter buzzer.
For a while, it appeared the MI tandem of Sam Nordale, a sweet-shooting senior guard, and Andrew Pickles, a burly lefty in the post, would be enough to pull off the upset. But Beach eventually began to inch away. Forward Keith Smith, who’s off to Oregon next year, used his length to effect shot after shot on one end and his quickness to create looks of his own on the other. Sophomore Kevin Porter Jr. looked like a 30-point outburst waiting to happen — still recovering from an injury, he finished with just ten, but it was the easiest ten points I’ve ever seen. Beach played pretty poorly, and it still ended up with a 65-48 win to take fifth place in the district and advance to regionals.
Half an hour later, in front of a much emptier gym than the rest of the day’s games, the Rainier Beach girls did the same, topping Lakeside 57-47 to take fifth in the district and make it to state. The handful of folks who stuck around were treated to a show by Beach senior guard Saniah Simpson-Patu. She scored nine points in the first two minutes of the game, had 18 at the half, and finished with 28, logged on a variety of 3-pointers, midrange jumpers and twisting layups. She was unstoppable. Parts of the contest devolved into a duel between Simpson-Patu and Lakeside’s Kimijah King, an athletic guard in her own right who finished with 17 points. But Beach had the best player on the floor, and as is so often the case, that was enough.