By Gerardo Bolong
Contributing Sports Correspondent

PUYALLUP - For lack of consistently good shot making a trip to Yakima was lost.

Despite a huge advantage in shots taken and rebounding, the Seattle Christian boys basketball team fell to Cascade Christian, 50-46, in a Class 1A winner-to-state at the Yakima Sun Dome, loser-out regional game held at Puyallup High School on Fri., Feb. 24.

"It's tough to lose a game when you do almost everything the way you wanted," said a subdued Warrior head coach Micheal Watts. "We had more shots than they did, but we also missed more shots. Even though we hit the boards like no other, we had lots of misses within three feet of the basket. It was a matter of executing everything well, except for making shots."

Statistics bore out the observations of Watts.

Seattle Christian shot 13-of-45 from standard field goal range and 3-of-14 from beyond the 3-point arc compared to Cascade Christian's 10-of- 34 and 7-of-14 respectively. Rebounding went to SC, 45-36, with a 17-7 preponderance on the offensive glass.

After Evan Toy's driving lay in tied the score at 44-44, with just more than five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the stretch run provided a snapshot of the Warrior woes.

Missed lay ins combined with offensive put back tries dealt Seattle Christian crushing blows. Four consecutive Cougar points capped by a pair of Grayson Jones free throws placed Cascade Christian in a very favorable position with 1:31 showing on the scoreboard clock.

Twenty-seven seconds later, Max Loorem assisted Spencer Howell on a lay in that drew SC within two points. The Warriors were not in the penalty free throw situation and resorted to fouling tactics until Dylan Cooley went to the line for the Cougars with just more than 32 seconds left.

An opportunity to tie game presented itself when Zac VanderLey powered to he hoop, but like so many other short-range chances, the play yielded no fruit.

As just more than 17 seconds were left, Corbin Nohr of CC missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw situation before Leighton Lanier snatched an offensive rebound before converting the second shot of a double bonus with 14.6 seconds left.

Seattle Christian crossed half-court and called time out with just more than 10 seconds on the clock, but was unable to set up for a good 3-point shot as CC closed out business with a free throw, ending an SC season in which the Warriors battled through the adversity of not fielding full strength team numbers of players often, especially at the ending part of the regular season.

In the first quarter, the Warriors moved the ball to overcome a 5-0 Cougar scoring blitz to open the game. Toy, Howell, VanderLey and Loorem accounted for a total of eight consecutive Seattle Christian points to forge a 10-8 SC lead, but the Cascade Christian quick attack offense dissipated its deficit to grab a 19-12 command at the end of the quarter.

Warrior shot conversions were already starting to fall off.

Cascade Christian nearly left Seattle Christian in its wake by establishing a 10-point lead to open the second quarter.

SC cut its deficit to seven points twice in the quarter before Dalton Saggau fired home a 3-pointer form the corner to draw the warriors from SeaTac within 25-20.
Saggau and Howell closed out the first half scoring with two points apiece and Seattle Christian trailed only 25-24 at the break.

Many machinations moved the momentum with short leads being gained by both squads until Cascade Christian held a 39-38 edge going into the fourth quarter.

Dylan Cooley torched one of his key 3-point goals only to be countered by VanderLey's only 3-pointer of the game. Cooley persisted and scored a hoop to make the score 44-41. Saggau made the first of two free throws to set up Toy's deadlocking field goal and the end game tactics.

VanderLey led the Warrior scoring with 13 points and grabbed 15 caroms, but was unable to parlay the rebounds into baskets consistently while shooting 1-of-8 from standard field goal range. Howell scored 10 points on 5-of-9 shooting while collecting 10 rebounds. Saggau added eight points and five rebounds. Loorem tallied seven points with five rebounds. Toy concluded with six as Harry Hohimer notched two.

Cooley scored 14 on 4-of-8 shooting from 3-point range for Cascade. Jones had 11 points and seven boards.
Seattle Christian fought courageously to finish its season at 13-11.