GSL teams sweep 4A boys regional berths

For a guy who said he wasn’t trying to score, Kea Vargas did enough of it Saturday night.

But his team-leading 15 points wasn’t why he was smiling after Gonzaga Prep handled visiting Richland 70-54 and earned a 4A basketball subregional tournament berth.

He was smiling about points not scored.

By Steven Beo, Richland’s senior guard who had racked up 48 Friday night in an overtime loss to visiting Central Valley.

“I wasn’t looking to score,” Vargas said, “I was just looking to stop him.”

Vargas, Sam Lockett, who continued the physical play when Vargas rested, and the rest of the G-Prep defense did just that, holding Beo, headed to BYU as a preferred walk-on, to just 10 points. Eight of those came in the final 4 minutes, 43 seconds, when G-Prep had already built an insurmountable lead.

“When you play against a player of that caliber,” G-Prep coach Matty McIntyre said, “you have to focus a lot of your attention on him. Kea and Sam did an incredible job … but the team defense is what got the job done.”

Beo played less than 9 minutes in the first three quarters because of foul trouble. Two of the four fouls he was assessed in that time were offensive fouls, picked up by help defenders Logan Adams and Devin Culp, respectively.

The Bombers, whose season ended at 20-5, led 28-25 at the half but struggled in the third without their leading scorer and primary ball-handler.

Richland turned the ball over 10 times in the quarter. G-Prep turned them into nine transition points and built a 15-point edge after the first possession of the fourth quarter.

Landon Ratliff tried to keep Richland close, hitting a Beo-like three long 3-pointers and scoring 20 points.

But that wasn’t enough to offset G-Prep’s transition game that resulted in four players in double figures, including Adams (14), Culp (14) and freshman Anton Watson (10).

“That’s state tournament-type of basketball,” said McIntyre, who guided Prep to the 2011 4A title. “That (type of team defense) is what you have to do to be successful.”

Prep will take a 22-2 record along with its third-place subregional finish into next weekend’s first two rounds of regional.

“This win is proof to us we can do this,” said Vargas, who then referenced Friday night’s 75-73 overtime defeat to Lewis and Clark. “Last night was a tough loss, but we were hungry today.”