Another Gut Check, Another District Title for Beach
Vikings Overcome 16-point Deficit, Beat O'Dea for fourth straight time
A game after missing 16 free throws, the Rainier Beach Vikings upped the ante on degree-of-difficulty by spotting arch-rival O’Dea an 18-4 lead after one quarter. What’s more, Beach star Tyran Stokes didn’t collect his first basket until 15.6 seconds remained in the first half.
Yes, you read that correctly. The Vikings are District 2 champions, after rallying for a 56-47, their fourth this season over the Fighting Irish on Saturday night. It’s extremely likely the two teams will be seeded Nos. 1 and 2 for the WIAA state 3A tournament, which begins on Tuesday.
The seeds were planted when coach Mike Bethea wholesale benched all his starters midway through the disastrous first period.
“We did that to ourselves,” junior Micah Ili-Meneese said. “We dug ourselves in that hole, and then we had to sit and watch our second group. It really like got us mad.”
Ili-Meneese sparked the comeback by scoring Beach’s first eight points of the third quarter. That spurt included a scintillating sequence of retrieving a rebound for a free throw, making a layup through a block for a 3-point play, then a spinning layup — all on the break.
Stokes scored the Vikings’ next five points and Wes Armstrong hit a reverse layup to bring his team all the way back, at a 33-33 tie with 2:21 remaining in the third quarter.
In the final period, Bethea inserted a squad of leapers — Armstrong, Ili-Meneese, Stokes, and Kam Babbs — that blocked a bevy of O’Dea shots, rendering the Irish tentative. Meanwhile, Irish coach Jason Kerr went smaller to keep pace and Stokes wore out Giulio Banchero and all-league forward Brian Webster, who both fouled out. Webster had 15 points in the first half and only three in the second.
Stokes led Rainier Beach with a season-low 17 points.
The Vikings also got an offensive lift from Babbs. The Vikings had no 3-pointers against Eastside Catholic in the district semifinal, and only one in the first 26 minutes against O’Dea. With his team desperate for a long-distance connection, Babbs calmly stuck one to create the last tie of the game, 42-42, with 6:08 to play. He shortly followed with a coast-to-coast, fast-break layup and the game was essentially settled.