Vikings Enjoy a Laugher
Not just Tyran Stokes, six of his teammate join him in double figures
To those who boil down the No. 1 Rainier Beach Vikings to merely Tyran Stokes and the Pips, we offer Tuesday night’s 98-49 rout of Garfield in the District 2 opener at Bellevue College.
In a game where Beach just missed scoring 100 points, Stokes equaled his season low with 21 of them. Six teammates — Micah Ili-Meneese (17), Knowledge Wright (15), Wes Armstrong (11), Kam Babbs (10), KJ Hightower (10), and Achilles Reyna (10) — joined him in double figures.
When coach Mike Bethea let loose the Rainier Beach pressure, less than three minutes into the game, the Vikings held the Bulldog scoreless for 4 minutes, 8 seconds, and ripped off 15 unanswered points. The tone was set. Stokes sat for extended periods, as Bethea substituted liberally. This is a three-games-in-five-days situation, after all.
In Thursday’s semifinals, Rainier Beach, 23-1, will take on Eastside Catholic for the third time this season. The Crusaders led by as many as 27 points and prevailed 76-53 over a Liberty (Renton) team that wasn’t even in its class. Eastside sat their 6-foot-11 center Yabi Aklog (18 points) the whole fourth quarter and their first-team, All-Metro forward Tytan McNeal (19 points) for all but a minute of the final period.
Freshman JJ Crawforwill not return to action for Eastside Catholic, as hoped. He said he will need further conditioning and will resume play in the state opener next week. He did however dunk on Tuesday for the first time since suffering the right high-ankle sprain on Jan. 23.
It may be just as well. Compared to the Vikings, Eastside Catholic and Liberty seemed to be playing in slow motion. Meanwhile, on the other side of the bracket, O’Dea barely beat Seattle Prep 59-58 and Bellevue had a tougher time than expected in beating Roosevelt 64-51.