Beach Cruises at Eastside Catholic
Ili-Meneese, Wright defensive spark overcomes Stokes foul trouble
Rainier Beach didn’t just send a message at Eastside Catholic on Friday night, they delivered a full-blown speech.
They crushed the Crusaders 94-67 with a tsunami-like, second-half defense that held Eastside Catholic without a field goal for the first 6 minutes, 20 seconds of the third quarter and the first 6 minutes, 58 seconds of the fourth.
The Vikings, 19-1, did so with superstar forward Tyran Stokes mired in foul trouble. He drew his fifth, disqualifying foul with 3:04 remaining, but still managed a game-high 33 points, including 19 of 19 from the free-throw line in a rough-and-tumble game.
They did so by going smaller and fleeter in the second half, getting huge boosts from Micah Ili-Meneese and Knowledge Wright, who scored 20 points and 18 points, respectively, but had even more of an impact at the defensive end.
Wright, the more offensive of the Viking point guards, seemed to be pressure defending the whole Eastside Catholic team. And Ili-Meneese volunteered at halftime to defend Eastside’s 6-foot-11 senior, Yabi Aklog, without any help. Aklog, who punctured the Vikings for 35 points earlier this season, finished with less than half of that (14) in the second meeting.
“That’s Beach Boyz basketball,” Wright said. “That’s our identity — defense, intensity, all of that.”
Ili-Meneese, who had a monstrous dunk off an offensive rebound in the second quarter, said, “I haven’t been really aggressive, and I needed to step up, especially with JJ (Crawford, right high ankle sprain) out.”
“Knowledge is going to get a lot of praise for how he scored and picked them apart,” said assistant coach Jamal Crawford. “I think Micah deserves a lot of credit too, because he took the challenge … And I thought that was instrumental in us taking off as well. So everybody played a part.”
The Vikings turn right around and play a makeup game at Roosevelt on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.