State 2B: St. George’s stuns defending champs Northwest Christian with late rally
This one was over.
With barely three minutes left in Thursday’s boys state 2B quarterfinal game at the Arena, Saint George’s was down by 11 against their season-long tormenters from Northwest Christian.
The defending champs had already slayed the Dragons in two regular-season games and this one seemed headed the same way after NWC’s Rolf Veenstra drilled a 3-point shot with 3:10 to play.
Saint George’s coach Ryan Peplinski stayed calm and told himself, “ ‘It looks like it’s time to go to the press.’ ”
The move paid off with four turnovers in the next minute, helping send the Dragons to a shocking 50-48 win and a spot in Friday’s semifinal against unbeaten Kittitas.
Suddenly the Dragons (18-8) were within two after Erik Farias’ three-point play cut the lead to 47-45 with two minutes left.
“Just sticking with the game plan and trying to secure the win,” deadpanned Saint George’s forward Xander Werkman, who had 16 rebounds to help the Dragons close out the game on a 14-1 run.
Even after a timeout, Northwest Christian (23-2) couldn’t hold onto the ball. A steal by Mitchell Ward led a tying bucket from Cade Peplinski, who finished with 19 points and 13 rebounds.
The Crusaders got a free throw with 1:27 – their only point in the final three minutes, as it turned out – but Farias struck again after a steal by Werkman and two free throws for what turned out to be the winning points with 23 seconds left.
Farias got the last of his game-high 22 points on another foul shot with eight seconds left to make it 50-48, setting up a dramatic finish.
The ball went to NWC’s Ryan Ricks near the top of the arc.
“I was just trying trying to stay straight up and play good defense because he’s a great free throw shooter,” said Farias, who forced Ricks into an off-balance shot with four seconds left.
After the unlikely celebration, coach Peplinski was reminded that his team had pulled off another unlikely rally the day before against Seattle Lutheran. Perhaps that gave the Dragons some confidence in crunch time.
Saint George’s, which lost by 18 at Northwest Christian in their last meeting, trailed for most of the game.
“Going in we just wanted to keep it as close as possible for as long as possible,” Peplinski said.
Northwest Christian was led by Ricks and Veenstra, who had 18 and 15 points, respectively. The Crusaders will face Napavine in a consolation loser-out game on Friday.