YAKIMA — The Shorecrest boys basketball team has been on quite the run the past three weeks. In that time the Scots have beat the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 ranked 2A teams in the state.
For their successes, the streaking Scots found themselves in Saturday’s state championship game where they nearly added No. 3 Clarkston to that list. The Scots fell short in a classic title matchup, 60-59.
“I couldn’t be any more proud of those guys,” Shorecrest head coach Brian Fischer said. “They fought all postseason. We had our backs against the wall a few times and we always found out a way to win. Tonight, we were just one play away.”
The Bantams won the title thanks to a free throw by senior guard Trevon Allen, who was fouled on 3-pointer with two seconds left in the game. Allen made just one of three, but it was enough for a Clarkston victory.
“We were just going to try and stay in front and make it tough,” Fischer said. “We knew that you were going to have a hard time really stopping him from getting a shot off. I think Aubry (Victor) did his best to make it a difficult shot, the officials just didn’t like his defense. He tried to make a play and he did a great job. It just didn’t work out for us.”
Allen struggled from the free-throw line, hitting just four of his 10 attempts, but that’s the only place where he struggled. He finished with a game-high 30 points and shot 4-for-9 from 3-point range.
“He’s so quick and he can shoot it from anywhere,” Fischer said. “It was a huge task. We tried to use three different guys and mix it up a little bit on him. A couple of times we wanted to trap him, but we really didn’t do as good of a job there. He’s going to get his shots, but if we could slow him down a little bit and take away some of the baskets the other guys are going to make I thought maybe we would have an opportunity to win that game. We were right there. We just needed a little bit more I guess.”
Shorecrest got most of its offense from 6-foot-7 sophomore Philip Pepple, who shot 10-for-15 from the field and finished with 21 points.
“Our goal was to get him the ball as much as we could near the basket,” Fischer said. “They started double and triple teaming him down the stretch and he still found a way. It’s nice to have that steady scoring down low. He’s just done a phenomenal job this year, rebounding and scoring.”
It may take some time, but the Scots can take pride in knowing that they pushed the Bantams to the brink.
“It hurts bad right now to be this close and just not have it happen for you, but I told those guys in the locker room that as time goes on and as months turn into years they’ll just have so much that they are going to look back and be really proud of.
We’ve been on a journey this year that’s just been a heck of a lot of fun.”
At Yakima Valley SunDome
Clarkston 9 21 16 14 — 60
Shorecrest 13 16 16 14 — 59
TClarkston–Jake Albright 0, Jett Sobotta 12, Davian Sobotta 9, Travis Hansen 9, Trevon Allen 30, Derrick Hoene 0, Keaton Brenner 0. Shorecrest–Malcolm Rosier-Butler 6, Chris Lee 0, Dagmawe Menelik 9, Tobyn Lawson 13, Aubry Victor 6, Philip Pepple 21, Simon Acker 2, Steven Lin 0, Ben Smolen 2. Records–Clarkston 25-1. Shorecrest 18-9.
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