BOTHELL — No, the Glacier Peak Grizzlies were never quite able to reel in the Mount Si Wildcats. But Glacier Peak showed enough that should the teams meet again when the stakes are even higher, the Grizzlies may just find a way to land that big fish.
In a possible preview of a Class 4A state boys basketball championship game, Mount Si’s big three had too much for Glacier Peak to overcome, and the Wildcats defeated the Grizzlies 59-53 in the District 1/2 championship game Friday night at North Creek High School.
The trio of Blake Forrest (18), Trevor Hennig (17) and Latt Ford (14) combined to score 49 of Mount Si’s points, and one of the three came up with big plays every time Glacier Peak, which played from behind the entire game, threatened to catch up. The Wildcats, considered by many to be the best team in the state regardless of classification, claimed their third straight district championship.
But Glacier Peak hung tough, with Josiah Lee (26 points) and Isaiah Cuellar-Bell (13 points) regularly making high-degree-of-difficulty shots to keep the Grizzlies close. And if not for a late non-call Glacier Peak may have found the formula for beating Mount Si.
”We didn’t play perfect, but we played really hard and together,” Glacier Peak coach Brian Hunter said. “I don’t think people expected us to compete with the team that’s probably going to be considered the favorite to win the state title. Whether it’s 3A, 4A, it doen’t matter, this team is the No. 1 team in the state. I think we made a good case that when the state tournament starts next week we can compete.”
Ford, an ultra-talented 6-foot-6 sophomore wing, added 10 rebounds and three key second-half blocks, while Forrest, a lightning-quick senior point guard, played a heady all-court game with six boards and six assists for Mount Si (23-2), which hasn’t lost to a team from Washington this season.
”That definitely (felt like a state championship-caliber game),” Forrest said. “There was a great atmosphere here, too. They were really good, definitely the best team we’ve probably played so far.”
Freshman forward Zachary Albright added 10 points and 10 rebounds for Glacier Peak (22-2).
”I thought we played hard and gave it our best shot,” Lee said. “I think we probably could have taken better shots down at the end, but we played hard.”
Friday’s game was highly anticipated as both teams, which had already qualified for state, spent the past few weeks swatting away opponents like a horse swishing it’s tail to shoo pesky flies off its rump. This was the game that would show just how these teams compared.
Mount Si announced its intentions from the start, as the Wildcats scored straight off the opening tip and led 5-0 before the fans had a chance to settle into their seats. Mount Si pushed its lead to as many as 10 in the first quarter, and if not for Lee’s shot making Glacier Peak could have been run out of the building early.
But the Grizzlies made a number of runs at the Wildcats, with the last of those coming during a decisive sequence with less than two minutes remaining. Mount Si led 56-51 when Glacier Peak’s Reed Nagel scored on a drive to the hoop, stole the ensuing inbound pass, and then found another lane to the rim. Nagel took a good bump from Hennig, but no foul was called. Had a foul been called Hennig would have fouled out, and Nagel would have been at the line with a chance to cut the lead to one with 1:45 remaining. Instead, Hennig scored in transition on a nice feed from Forrest about 30 seconds later to effectively clinch the game.
”That was big,” Hunter said about the Nagel sequence. “But this is high school sports, one play doesn’t decide a game. I love that we put ourselves in position to be in that spot.”
Prior to that sequence, one of Mount Si’s big three had an answer for each Glacier Peak run. Ford did the heavy lifting early, scoring 10 in the first quarter as the Grizzlies struggled to deal with his size and athleticism. Forrest did the damage in the second quarter, twice hitting 3s after Glacier Peak pulled with two or three. Then Hennig did the work in the third as he was able to find buckets in transition en route to nine of his 17.
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