In the biggest game of the Class 1A basketball season, the state’s best player never had a chance to let the game come to him. The state’s best team simply took it away.

It’s a team that spends at least a half-hour of every practice on shooting. Just shooting. And, almost from the moment that Spencer Kraker hit his first 3-pointer midway through the opening period, that’s how smooth and relaxed he and his Bellevue Christian teammates seemed. Like they were at practice, just shooting around.

The Vikings’ 60-56 victory over Brewster never really had the drama of last year’s championship game between the same teams — not after Kraker and Jeffrey Downs combined to shoot 9-for-11 in the first half for a 32-19 lead at the intermission.

“Before the game, Coach (Mike Downs) said we could be the best shooting team in the state,” Kraker said. “And he said we just had to play with the poise of a championship team.”

Sinking shots, of course, makes it easier to maintain that poise. Missing a lot of them can have the opposite effect. The Bears (24-2) started off cold and stayed that way, and even though they were able to trim a 15-point deficit to three late in the game, they never seemed in synch.

“It lasted. That’s the weird thing,” said Michael Taylor, the Bears’ near-unanimous tournament MVP said of Brewster’s shooting woes. “Usually you might have that a little at the beginning or maybe a while later on, but not the whole time.”

The Bears’ frigid 17-for-55 shooting included at least a dozen shots from inside nine feet.

“We couldn’t buy a basket inside the paint,” said Brewster coach Tim Taylor, whose team was also a miserable 1-for-12 on 3-pointers, normally one of the Bears’ strengths. Michael Taylor struggled as much as anyone, missing all seven of his 3-point attempts during an 8-for-25 night.

On the other side, the Vikings (24-2) were on cruise control by the second period after Kraker’s second 3-pointer, which was followed quickly by treys from Downs and Nate Hendricks for a double-digit lead.

“I like to feed off other guys’ energy usually, but in big games it’s everybody’s job to step up, and I was feeling it tonight,” said Kraker, who would finish with 19 points on 7-for-8 shooting.

“The shooting just comes as natural to us,” said Jeffrey Downs, whose 20-point, eight-rebound, three-assist night capped a sensational tourney for the junior all-stater. “We’ve all gone to my dad’s camps in the summer for years, and we know we can knock them down.”

In fact, the Vikings had a comfortable victory all but sewn up before they missed seven free throws in the final 1:34 to let the Bears creep back into it. But their lead was just too big for Brewster to make up.

“They’re a better team. They’ve proven that,” Tim Taylor said. “My hat’s off to them.”

Michael Taylor finished with 24 points, seven rebounds and selection as the tournament’s MVP — an honor that Downs, the only other logical contender, didn’t begrudge him.

“He deserves it. He’s a great player,” Downs said. “I don’t really care about stuff like the MVP. I just wanted to win this thing.”

The guy who minutes earlier had been helping tote around the team championship trophy grinned.

“This trophy,” he said, “is a lot bigger.”
 

Brewster -- Benson 0-0 0-0 0, W. Gebbers 0-5 3-4 3, McCormack 0-1 0-0 0, C. Gebbers 4-10 4-5 13, Gipson 4-6 3-4 11, Burgher 0-1 2-2 2, LaMoreaux 1-7 1-2 3, Taylor 8-25 8-9 24. Totals 17-55 21-26 56.
Bellevue Christian -- Baranowski 0-0 0-0 0, Olin 0-0 0-0 0, Dean 0-4 0-0 0, Kraker 7-8 2-6 19, Downs 6-10 7-8 20, Neal 1-2 0-2 2, Park 0-1 0-0 0, Hendricks 6-12 0-0 13, Haines 2-3 2-2 6. Totals 22-40 11-18 60.
Brewster	11	8	12	25	--	56
Bellevue Christian	15	17	9	19	--	60
3-point goals--B 1-12 (C. Gebbers 1-2, W. Gebbers 0-3, Taylor 0-7), BC 5-8 (Kraker 3-3, Downs 1-1, Hendricks 1-4). Rebounds--B 34 (Gipson 8, Taylor 7), BC 32 (Downs 8, Haines 6). Assists--B 4, BC 7 (Downs 3). Steals--B 4, BC 2. Blocked shots--B 1, BC 0. Fouled out--C. Gebbers, Dean. Total fouls --B 18, BC 19. Technical fouls--None. Turnovers--B 7, BC 13.