Road Lessons Fuel Surge
Busy holiday leads to momentum and an emerging freshman star
On Monday night, when they were in the thick of it, as the opposing 6-foot-11, 230-pound Yabi Aklog was stuffing 18 of his 35 points down their throats in the third quarter, when the Eastside Catholic Crusaders turned a 14-point deficit into a one-point, final-period lead, the Rainier Beach boys basketball team seemed to have felt rubber in their legs, a burning in their lungs, and lack of clarity in their domes.
The Vikings, after all, had just spent eight days out of town, running with some of the country’s best, during their so-called holiday “break.” Then they returned in early January to a buzz saw.
“I’m feeling it,” Beach coach Mike Bethea said, “so they must be feeling it.”
Bethea was referencing road weariness, but what his younger charges must have been feeling, especially at the end of a rousing 85-74 victory over their closest local challengers, were impacts of the lessons they packed home in their suitcases.
It only looked as easy as flipping a switch: As soon as the Crusaders claimed a 70-69 lead with 3:55 to play, the Vikings vaporized them with a 13-0 splurge engineered by their stars, Tyran Stokes (31 points) and J.J. Crawford (24 points, 4 threes), who combined for 19 of their team’s final 21 points. After Stokes bullied his way to a three-point play, Crawford dialed up a long-distance three resulting from a loose ball tipped by Stokes out of a rebound scramble with 2:46 left on the clock.