MILL CREEK — Until earlier this season the Kamiak boys basketball team hadn’t beat Jackson since 2006. After Friday’s 75-69 win, the Knights earned the regular-season sweep over Jackson for the first time since — well, no one seems to know.
Kamiak head coach Cory West is in his eighth season as the Knights head coach and coached the JV team for five seasons prior to that. The Knights haven’t beat the Timberwolves twice in a season in that span and West and his coaching staff didn’t know how long it had been before that since it’s happened.
Needless to say, the Knights were excited.
“That’s our rival,” West said. “Everyone talks about Mariner because it’s our district, but that’s our rival. That’s the team everyone wants to beat because they want to be like them. Every program aspires to be like Jackson. Realistically, every program in Snohomish County that I know of. “They’ve been at the top for a long time and they just keep pumping teams out — and that’s a pretty darn good team there too.”
With Friday’s victory, the Knights earned a bye in the first round of the 4A District 1 tournament, which begins next week.
The Timberwolves played without 6-foot-6 senior forward Colton Faddis, who injured his knee in Tuesday’s loss to league-leading Cascade.
“We knew that Colton was out tonight and we really wanted to exploit the inside game because we knew we had an advantage,” sophomore guard Carson Tuttle said. “I’m super-proud of our bigs for stepping up and finishing tonight. They did a great job.”
Faddis, who was at the game using crutches with a brace on his knee, was on the bench supporting his teammates.
“It’s a big blow for them, but they still came to play,” West said. “I thought they defended our posts pretty well. We got them early in the rebounds, but I thought they defended our posts pretty well being that they’re pretty much all guards. I thought they did a good job, but that’s a huge blow for them.”
Senior posts Nate Shubert and Coleman Grayson benefitted from Faddis’ absence, finishing with 18 and 15 points respectively.
Despite that Knights’ advantage inside, Jackson was never out of the game thanks to senior guard Sam Saufferer. Saufferer was 5-for-6 in the second quarter and had 19 of his team’s 29 points in the first half. He finished with a game-high 38 points on Senior Night.
“Sam can shoot the heck out of the ball, but Senior Night a little more is going to fall,” West said. “I just hope those basketball gods are in our favor Tuesday against Cascade because it’s our Senior Night.”
One’s of West’s assistant coaches took notice of Saufferer’s game early in the first half.
“Coach said, ‘he might get 50’ and I said, ‘he can get 60 as long as we win,’” West said. “I don’t like giving up that many points, but if he gets 60 and we get the win, I’ll take it and hats off to him.”
Tuttle led the Knights with 22 points.
“He’s getting better at running our offense,” West said of his sophomore guard. “He can score when he wants to, but sometimes in the past he was forcing stuff. Now he’s learning that he’ll get going once he gets everybody else going. I thought he did a really good job of that tonight.”
The two teams were tied at 29 at halftime and tied at 48 after three quarters, but the Knights put the game away in the fourth quarter with their free-throw shooting. The Knights were 15-for-15 from the free-throw line, including 12-for-12 in the final 1:05 of the game.
“That’s the game right there,” West said. “We don’t make free throws, we lose that game.”
At Jackson H.S.
Kamiak 15 14 19 27 —75
Jackson 11 18 19 21 —69
Kamiak—Carson Tuttle 22, Christian Clausen 6, Jase Wiley 0, Trevor Gray 6, Hunter Watkins 0, Coleman Grayson 15, Gavin Patrick 6, Patrick Olson 0, Keller Whitney 0, Isaiah Jeannot 2, Nathan Shubert 18. Jackson—Brian Brown 9, Parker Manalo 0, Ian Willgress 0, Brock Peterson 0, Jordan Brajcich 2, Connor Marschall 7, Avery Goodwin 6, Hunter Johnson 3, Sam Saufferer 38, Islim Ouldtaki 4. Records—Kamiak 11-2 league, 14-5 overall. Jackson 9-4, 12-7.
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