This is how it ended – WSHS basket and lead, then Garfield's buzzer basket. pic.twitter.com/cqEwoNdUIy
— West Seattle Blog (@westseattleblog) March 4, 2017
10:48 PM FRIDAY: Unbelievable ending here at the Tacoma Dome minutes ago – a buzzer basket at game’s end got Garfield the win over West Seattle and the trip to tomorrow’s state-championship game against Nathan Hale. Final score, Garfield 44, West Seattle 43. The Wildcats will play Lincoln for third place tomorrow here at the T-Dome at 1 pm.
This was overall a low-scoring, relatively slow-moving game that neither team dominated, though West Seattle led for much of the last quarter. Both teams were cold-shooting in the first half, neither much above 1-of-4 field-goal success, but Garfield ramped it up with a 64% field-goal percentage in the second half. West Seattle #1, senior Nate Pryor, got his team the lead briefly with their last basket – as shown in our video – and was the game’s top scorer with 19 points.
More to come.
7 AM SATURDAY: The game tipped off at 9:19 pm. Garfield scored first; West Seattle got on the board with a foul shot by Pryor at just over a minute in.
First West Seattle basket was by #5 Abdullahi Mohamed.
The Bulldogs kept swatting the shots away, but WSHS rebounding was going strong, so they got multiple tries.
#4 senior Tyler Lenzie – the Wildcats’s second-leading scorer of the night, with 7 points – put them ahead midway through the first quarter, 5-4. That was up to 8-4 after a Pryor layup with 1:44 to go, but Garfield’s comeback ended the quarter at 8-8.
The second quarter went the same way as the first. Nobody pulled out ahead; things proceeded fairly slowly, especially when West Seattle brought the ball back downcourt and passed it around almost to the end of the shot clock. One such play ended with another Lenzie basket which put WSHS ahead 12-10.
Lenzie basket midway thru 2Q makes it 12-10 WSHS pic.twitter.com/Ny868oqqAp
— West Seattle Blog (@westseattleblog) March 4, 2017
Each team followed with a three-pointer. Then a flurry of fouls slowed things further, and the half concluded with Garfield ahead by one, 19-18.
Both sides came back out defending more aggressively. The pace did not pick up; in the early going, WSHS ran out the shot clock again, and the eventual shot missed. The Bulldogs capitalized on that.
The lead continued changing hands. A basket by #23 Anthony Giomi (who led WSHS with rebounds, 5) provided a two-point edge, 27-25, with just under three minutes left in the third quarter.
While West Seattle continued to control the boards, the shooting difficulties kept them from pulling significantly ahead until the final minute and a half of the quarter, with a Lenzie three-pointer and Pryor basket briefly opening a seven-point lead, 34-27 with :25 left in the quarter, which after a Garfield basket ended at 34-29, WSHS-Garfield.
The early going of the final quarter looked promising.
The Wildcats worked hard to block the Bulldogs. WSHS had an eight-point lead, 39-31, before the quarter was a minute and a half old. But then came seven unanswered Garfield points, 39-38 WSHS with 2:25 to go. Shortly thereafter, two consecutive Garfield dunks took the energy on and off the court to the highest level of the game, and put the Bulldogs ahead 40-39. The two traded the lead – including in the fateful final seconds, when it looked like Pryor’s basket might be the game-winner – and then suddenly, Garfield at the buzzer.
WSHS plays Lincoln (which lost to Nathan Hale last night, 84-60) at 1 pm this afternoon for third place. Ticket info is on the right side of the bracket page.
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