Mt. Spokane Wildcats bounced

SEATTLE – They are the shots teams practice every day. For that matter, they are the first shots most teams take during any warmup prior to a game.

The layup.

Yet those simplest of shots deserted the Mt. Spokane Wildcats on the first day of the State 3A boys basketball tournament at KeyArena.

“We must have missed seven layins,” Mt. Spokane coach Bill Ayers said. “If we make those, we win.”

Instead, the Wildcats were the first team to fall into the consolation bracket Wednesday morning after a 53-48 loss to Mount Rainier.

Mt. Spokane got off to a quick start, building 8-2 and 12-5 leads. The latter came with 4 minutes, 15 seconds to go in the first quarter, and proved to be the Wildcats’ largest lead of the game.

The Rams quickly whittled away at the lead, finally overtaking Mt. Spokane by quarter’s end to lead it 13-12. But it stayed close the rest of the half.

Mount Rainier took a 21-20 lead into the locker room at halftime.

“We played the percentages and took away their two leading scorers,” Ayers said. “Their other kids stepped up and hit shots in critical moments.”

The Wildcats shut down Mount Rainier’s top scorers – all three of them. Alfie Miller, who entered averaging more than 23 points a game, was held to seven on 2-of-8 shooting. Jon Morine (18 points per game) managed just five, and Vonchae Richardson (15 ppg) had only seven.

Tyrell Lewis and Theo Bowie picked up the slack.

Lewis, a 6-foot-2 forward, made 7 of 10 shots and scored a team-high 16 points. Bowie made 4 of 6 from the field and finished with 10.

Meanwhile, Mt. Spokane had trouble making much of anything – especially early. The Wildcats went in at halftime having made only 7 of 25 from the field. While those shooting numbers improved in the second half, Mt. Spokane still had its difficulties when it counted most.

With 1:20 to go, the Wildcats trailed by three. Mt. Spokane stole a pass and raced toward the other end, but missed yet another layup that would have cut the Rams’ advantage to a single point.

“Those are the shots you practice a thousand times,” Ayers said. “Part of it was jitters, and we were sort of intimidated. They (the Rams) blocked a couple of shots early.”

Ryan Selland led the Wildcats, scoring a team-high 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting, including 4 of 5 from 3-point range. Jordon Poynor added 17 points and eight rebounds for Mt. Spokane.