Puyallup outlasts Emerald Ridge, wins first district basketball title since 1991
· Yahoo Sports
For the first time since 1991, the Puyallup High School boys basketball team is the West Central District champion.
The Vikings won the Class 4A District 3/4 championship on Saturday, beating Emerald Ridge 61-52. It was the fourth meeting this season between the two programs. Emerald Ridge won the two regular season meetings, but Puyallup took the league tournament championship game.
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Add another postseason win for the purple and gold.
“It means a lot, but it means a lot beating that team we just played,” said senior guard Lawson Looker, a guard and also a star receiver on the football team last fall. “Beating that team feels good.”
Puyallup beat Kennedy Catholic in the opening round, Kentridge in the quarterfinals, hammered top-seeded Auburn in the semifinals and then beat Emerald Ridge in the final.
“It feels great,” said 6-foot-7 senior forward Will Nasinec,who scored 14 points. “Just redemption from last year, we lost in the semifinals. We made it past that, we wanted one more. It’s a team we’re familiar with, it’s always a close game with them, took care of business.”
The game went back and forth until late in the fourth quarter, when Puyallup pulled away. Sophomore guard Quamari Costello scored a team-high 18 points, Nasinec had 14, junior forward Mason Sonntag added 10 and Looker scored nine.
Emerald Ridge 6-foot-7 senior forward Jaaize McGriff piled up a game-high 24 points, but no one else for Emerald Ridge scored in double digits. Puyallup’s players figured McGriff would get his points, so limiting the Jaguars’ guard was the major focus.
“You’ve really gotta be on defense the whole time,” Looker said.
Puyallup (21-6) should land in the top eight once the seeding committee releases the state tournament seeds on Sunday, which will guarantee the Vikings a trip to the Tacoma Dome, one season after Puyallup played in the Class 4A state championship game. Puyallup hasn’t lost since falling to Emerald Ridge on Jan. 27, nearly a month ago.
“After Emerald Ridge beat us at home, it was just kind of a wake-up call there,” Puyallup coach Kevin Olson said. “It’s not gonna be easy. … We decided, ‘Hey, we’re a really good team, we’re a couple plays away from winning those games and we needed to execute in the fourth quarter to win.”
Credit Nasinec, a senior, with Puyallup’s confidence in the second half of the season.
“He’s definitely taken the lead of our team and knows that we need him to be really good and to score for us down the stretch,” Olson said. “That was the big challenge coming in, is who’s gonna take those shots at the end without Drew Jones? It took a while to get that worked out. But he’s done a great job, he’s taken ownership of that.”
Emerald Ridge also advances to the state tournament regional round. In total, the 4A SPSL sends four teams through to the state tournament regional round. Olympia beat Kentridge and Sumner beat Union in loser-out, winner-to-state games on Friday.