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| Published March 13, 2004 :: Home 
Roger |
Underdogs Proved Themselves Against Hoquiam in Finale What happened in the SunDome on Saturday night was old hat. If you planned the ’69 Mets’ victory parade. One of the great things about sports is that favorites have to prove themselves and underdogs get a new chance, every single game. Records and victory margins don’t count. And so it was with East Valley and Hoquiam in the Class 2A state championship game, a contest that was absolutely ho-hum. If you watched David vs. Goliath. “We knew we’d need some luck,” Grizzlies coach Brian Grun said, pulling a cellophane-wrapped four-leaf clover from his pocket. He added that each of his players had been given a similar good-luck charm and had carried it with them, along with their 24-0 record, No. 1 ranking and 34-point per game victory margin, on their trip from Grays Harbor to Yakima. Coach Steve Elder’s Red Devils, meanwhile, brought poise, patience, persistence and a 13-10 record to the tournament, where they made Hoquiam thank its lucky stars for all those four-leaf clovers. The Grizzlies’ 41-37 victory, after all, had gone entirely as expected. If you wrote the acceptance speech for Truman’s victory over Dewey. Somewhere along Hoquiam’s magic carpet ride, there must have been cause for concern. Maybe after the Grizzlies’ 79-17 nipping of Rochester or their 83-19 nail-biter against Montesano, someone had mentioned the unnerving prospect of a one-possession game. Even if Hoquiam hadn’t had one all year, with an 11-point conquest of Class 4A Lincoln being its closest brush with defeat. The trouble for East Valley was, with that possibility very real Saturday night, the Grizzlies didn’t seem out of their comfort zone. “They didn’t panic,” Elder said. Especially Justin Reed. A 5-foot-11 senior, Reed effused the mentality that he could move the Earth. Or stop his teammates’ knees from knocking, whichever was needed most. “The whole tournament, I’ve felt like I could make shots when we needed them,” he said, eyes glistening after cutting down his strand of the net. “I’ve always felt like I’d be clutch, even when I was a little kid.” Said Grun, “Even though he’s a pure shooter, I’ve had to tell him now and then, ‘If guys get to close to you, go around them.’ And then he’ll do that. He can hang in the air and make those little runners so easily. “He’s just a great athlete -- you should see him throw a baseball or kick a football.” On this occasion, with his team’s season and his own boyhood dreams on the line, Reed was plenty impressive shooting a basketball. Even if he missed seven of his 10 3-point attempts, each of the three he made tore away huge chunks of East Valley’s hope. Another of sport’s most compelling aspects, this one especially appealing in basketball: Looking flashy and formidable gets you nowhere. Style points don’t count. And East Valley had played that card to the hilt, using its no-frills, team-first approach to methodically subdue first Steilacoom, then Eatonville and then Medical Lake. Against Hoquiam, it was business as usual. If you were a stock baron on Black Monday. Consider this: Even with the Red Devils hitting an offensive wall Saturday night, going 6:08 of the second half without scoring, they made the game a bear for the Grizzlies. They made Grun, the Hoquiam native and ex-WSU Cougar, sweat. And they made Reed, the newly-crowned tournament MVP, cry. Thanks to remarkable efforts from all-tournament first-teamer Tyler Price, second-teamer Isaiah Mata and others, East Valley was only a 3-pointer away after Price hit one with 17 seconds to play. That’s what happened Saturday night in the SunDome, just another championship game that went as expected. If you played for Indiana’s Milan High School (Hickory, in the movie “Hoosiers”) in 1954.
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