Rainier Beach vs. O'Dea IIII
Any unfinished business in this series may belong to Vikings star Tyran Stokes
If there’s any unfinished business in Saturday night’s District 2 championship at Bellevue College, you’d think it would belong to O’Dea, which has lost three straight to Rainier Beach.
We’d beg to differ: the agenda belongs to Vikings star Tyran Stokes.
First there was O’Dea’s Giulio Banchero, brother of NBA star Paolo, who interrupted Beach’s Metro championship celebration to chirp at Stokes. Banchero is 6-foot-2 to Stokes’ 6-8, he’d fouled out trying to defend Stokes, and Stokes has owned the fourth quarter in three games against the Fighting Irish. Better to let the dragon sleep.
After that game, Stokes said he wasn’t satisfied beating O’Dea three times. He wanted to beat them two more times, referring to the 6:30 p.m. game on Saturday and the inevitable rematch in the WIAA state 3A tournament.
Second, there’s the matter of Stokes’ (and his team’s) disappearing free-throw touch against Eastside Catholic on Thursday night. With increasing exasperation, he missed 7 of 16 attempts. Remember, earlier this season, Stokes made 39 straight over two games.
Furthermore, it’s rather startling that neither Stokes nor his teammates landed a single 3-point shot against the Crusaders.
Marques Ili-Meneese said he thought the culprit was the Baden basketball that his team used for the first time this season (and it’s the official ball of the WIAA tournament).
We noticed something else: Stokes likes to make two free throws to end his pre-game warmup. Out of time, Stokes reported to the Beach bench after missing a foul shot. Well, as Teddy Pendergrass once crooned with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes:
“Bad luck … that’s whatcha got, that’s whatcha got.”
Time to reverse that.