State 1A boys: Freeman breezes into semifinals; Newport drops into consolations

YAKIMA – Freeman had too much of too much on Thursday in the Yakima Valley SunDome and dashed past scrappy Warden 67-48 in the State 1A boys basketball tournament quartefinals.

The Scotties (23-1) will play King’s in the semifinals today at 7:15 pm. A win would send Freeman back to the title game for the second year in a row.

The only thing Freeman didn’t do really well was shoot. It didn’t matter, as the Scotties outrebounded the Cougars 37-19 and held Warden to 6-of-28 shooting beyond the 3-point arc.

Michael Coumont was seemingly everywhere for Freeman. The rangy junior scored 32 points, had four assists and five steals. He seemed to appear at whatever spot Freeman coach Marty Jessett needed him to be on the floor when an issue arose.

“They made us work hard early,” Jessett said. “They’re really athletic. We knew that (JR) Delgado could keep them in it. We wanted to limit what the others did.”

Ryan Maine chipped in 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds and Quin Hopkins had 10 points in 15 minutes off the bench.

Freeman’s rebounding advantage paid off on the scoreboard. The Scotties had 17 second-chance points and another 16 off 14 Warden turnovers.

Freeman opened up a 38-27 lead at halftime in large part thanks to some sizzling 3-point shooting. Coumont hit 4 of 6 and the team hit 8 of 14.

Delgado did his best to try and keep the Cougars in it with 26 points, but he needed 23 shots to get that. Coumont needed just 17 attempts for his total.

Lynden Christian 57, Newport 38: The Grizzlies hung tough for one quarter against the tournament co-favorite Lyncs, but tall and talented Lynden Christian eventually wore the smaller Grizzlies down for the win.

Newport, making its first tournament appearance since 1980, led 13-10 at the end of the first quarter. But the Lyncs scored the first seven points of the second period and Colson Bajema’s 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer seemed to energize the Lyncs and their boisterous fans.

Lynden Christian open the third period with nine straight points, including a deep 3-pointer from the left wing by Bajema – and Newport was done.

Danny Bradbury led the Grizzlies with 20 points.

Newport (16-10) will play Cascade Christian in the consolation bracket at 2 p.m. A win there would ensure Newport a trophy.