Taking the 5th

TACOMA – They traveled more than 300 miles to conclude their best-of-5 boys basketball series. Today, North Central and West Valley play for fifth and eighth places at the State 3A basketball tournament at 11:30 a.m. at the Tacoma Dome.

In two contrasting games, the Indians (22-6) earned a wild and crazy 63-60 victory over Mount Rainier, and the Eagles (21-5) ground out a 48-39 triumph over ultra-methodical Ellensburg.

Thus, the Indians become part of school lore as the eighth in as many NC state tourney appearances to bring home a trophy, the last in 1951.

“This is just like a magical ending,” said Damal Neil, one of Friday’s heroes. “We get a state trophy and get our name on the wall in North Central’s gym. We’re a team going in the history books.”

For West Valley (21-5) it’s the second trophy in row for six seniors and eighth overall for the school in this classification.

“I’m excited for Game 5,” said one of the six, Arton Toussaint, of today’s meeting. “It’s like a championship game really. The championship of Spokane.”

North Central 63, Mount Rainier 60: Although the Indians took an early 4-0 lead, they followed tournament script by battling from behind after the first quarter.

Partly it was the insertion of little-used 6-foot-7 junior post Justin Anderson. Unfazed by the lightning-quick Rams, he flustered their inside shooting with his size and hauled down five second-quarter rebounds.

“My job was to get rebounds,” he said. “Damal’s way more intimidating (than they were). I just went in there and played basketball.”

That helped Neil get untracked, too. He scored seven straight points as the Indians wiped out a six-point deficit and took a 19-18 lead midway through the second quarter on Doug Swanson’s 3-pointer.

“At first my shots weren’t falling at all and I thought it was going to be another bad night,” Neil said. “Then I got two, another two and I got more pumped up and they started feeding me the ball.”

Eric Beal swished two 3-pointers as NC closed the half with 10 straight points. He had another 3 and some spectacular baseline drives in the second half as the Indians went up 40-27. Beal and Neal combined for 34 points.

“They were outstanding again,” NC coach Jay Webber said. “We take for granted what Damal and Eric do every night.”

The lead was short-lived during a scoring frenzy that included three 3-pointers each.

Cody Hauenstein, who had been silent all tournament, had two en route to nine points.

“I guess I was a little nervous on the big stage,” Hauenstein said. “I think their focus on Damal helped me set up for my shot and they were going down.”

But Mount Rainier can score in a hurry and the lead was just two points at quarter’s end.

The Rams never got closer, thanks to late scoring and rebounding of Neil and NC free-throw shooting. While not brilliant at the line, the team made enough to hang on in the final eight minutes.

“We’re very happy for all the kids because they’ve worked so hard,” NC coach Jay Webber said. “Any time you place in state you know you’ve had a good year.”

West Valley 48, Ellensburg 39: Tyler Hobbs scored the game’s first five points as the Eagles jumped to a 5-0 lead.

Then, saddled with three fouls, he took a seat for the rest of the half.

But Cameron Wieber, who became a starter for the first time at state, helped up the lead to seven points, a margin the Eagles maintained throughout.

It wasn’t easy.

The Bulldogs run an offense that lulls people to sleep and WV tends to become frustrated against that kind of controlled game.

WV coach Jamie Nilles said he thought his team could take the ball out of Ellensburg’s hands, but because of the early foul calls it didn’t work out.

“But it kinda played in our hands,” he said. “With seven minutes to go they weren’t ultra-aggressively trying to get a lot of possessions. We slowed them down a ton and did enough that made them move ball more than they wanted to.”

Toussaint was able to penetrate and score, and the Eagles sank 15 successive free throws to maintain their lead.

“His whole thing in the tournament was about finishing,” Nilles said of Toussaint, “and today he did a great job.”

In earlier games, Toussaint often got hung up in the air with nowhere to go. He scored 10 points and found teammates to pass to.

“It was really a slow game. The rest were fast,” Toussaint said. “I’m used to playing both fast and slow, it really doesn’t matter to me, but I was able to take my time in the paint and either set up teammates or make a bucket against their guards.”

Wieber, who didn’t play last year and scored just 32 points in 23 games prior to state, had a season-high nine.