State 4A boys: Gonzaga Prep exemplifies ‘team effort’; Bullpups down Puyallup 57-55 in state championship game

They take a poll of the gathered media at Tacoma Dome during championship Saturday to decide the all-tournament team. It’s usually a fairly easy question to come up with the five most impactful players of the tournament.

But what happens when the best team truly embodies what it means to be a team?

Gonzaga Prep has had its hands full at this tournament, needing back-to-back overtimes to dispatch second-seeded Auburn 53-50 on Thursday and again in Friday’s 62-50 semifinal win over third-seeded Glacier Peak.

But the Bullpups aren’t built to be flashy or blow anyone out. Their strengths, as coach Matty McIntyre has said repeatedly this season – and frankly, throughout his 15 seasons has head coach – are defense, and sharing the ball.

They followed that formula to a state championship.

The Bullpups only played six players, but they all scored between six and 16 points, and top-seeded Gonzaga Prep edged the eighth-seeded Puyallup Vikings 57-55 in the State 4A championship game at Tacoma Dome on Saturday.

They won three games at the tournament by a combined 17 points.

“We don’t have an MVP, we don’t have a Division I player, but we have a team,” Gonzaga Prep coach Matty McIntyre said. “It’s amazing what you can do when you’ve got a team. These are special kids.”

Puyallup’s Drew Jones (20 points) tied it at 55-55 inside 30 seconds with a contested jumper, and the Bullpups had the ball at halfcourt with 16 seconds left. They got it to Howell, who drove to the baseline and hit a floater over 6-foot-8 Will Nasinec with 2.2 seconds left.

“My team had faith in me. My coaches had faith in me,” Howell said. “It all just came down to that last shot, and I’m just lucky that they trusted me to take it.”

After three consecutive timeouts, Puyallup threw a 75-foot pass to Nasinec in the frontcourt and called time with 1.9 seconds to go. The inbounds play went to Jones, whose jumper from the corner was strong and the Bullpups held on.

Jones was voted the tournament MVP. Howell was named to the first team and Ryan Carney was named second team.

Howell, the Greater Spokane League defensive player of the year, had the assignment to guard Jones. Howell played all 32 minutes.

“Jones is an incredibly good player, and Brogan has been our workhorse all year,” McIntyre said. “Brogan guarded the best player all season, so we knew he’d be up for the task one more time. And it was a tough 20 that Jones got. Brogan made him work for every single thing. Brogan is a tough, tough young man.”

It was a familiar foe – G-Prep (26-2) edged Puyallup (23-8) 56-54 in a protected opening round game on March 1. That loss sent the Vikings into desperation mode, winning back-to-back elimination games before beating West Valley (Yakima) 60-53 in the other semifinal.

The game might have been at a “neutral site,” but with Tacoma Dome just 8.1 miles from downtown Puyallup, it felt very much like a home game for the Vikings despite a good crowd from Spokane that made the trip.

Hudson Floyd (12 points) scored seven quick points to stake Gonzaga Prep to an early 11-6 lead. Jones hit a pair of 3s, but G-Prep’s Carter Nilson (16 points) answered in kind. All five starters scored, and the Bullpups led 20-14 after one.

“It’s a different person every night and that’s something we pride ourselves on,” Carney said. “It’s not just one person – we can all do our own thing, and we can get it done as the whole team.”

Nasinec converted a three-point play, then got open underneath for a lay-in to make it a two-point game. The Bullpups continued to spread the scoring around though and led 33-30 at the half.

The teams spent the third quarter dancing between two-, three-, four- or five-point differences. Howell made 1 of 2 at the line with 0.4 seconds left and G-Prep led 46-43 after three.

Nilson hit a 3 to start the fourth, but Jones answered to make it 49-48 and a lay-up by Lawson Looker tied it at 50-50 with 4 minutes, 30 seconds to play.

“They started making a run,” Carney said. “They were hitting shots. We just were trying to stay calm and collective and talk to each other. Be like, ‘Let’s get a stop here,’ one stop at a time. Try to get our buckets and just stick together.”

Jackson Mott (nine points, seven rebounds, four assists) hit a 3 from the corner, then he found Nilson on a backdoor cut to put the Bullpups up 55-50 with 2:26 left.

G-Prep missed three straight shots but kept grabbing the offensive rebound and taking time off the clock, and they led 55-53 with 52.1 seconds remaining.

“Don’t judge us during warmups,” McIntyre concluded. “We’re more than what we look and we’re not going to intimidate anybody when we run out on the floor. But the love these kids have for each other … there’s something unspoken that makes them as good as they are and eventually made them a state champion.”