James Vela didn’t have the win he wanted to end his boys basketball
career with, but the Grandview guard did put his final game in
perspective.
For the second straight year, the Greyhounds were playing on Saturday in
the SunDome at the Class 2A state tournament in the third/sixth-place
game. And while they didn’t match last year’s third-place finish,
falling 67-59 to Vashon Island, there were no tears or red eyes from
Vela after the game.
After losing four starters from last year’s team, the senior guard was
just proud of how this team battled, reaching the semifinals for the
second straight year, and never gave up. His season ended just fine for
him.
“The way I see it is there are about 50 teams in 2A and we were only on
of the lucky ones to compete with the best of the best,” said Vela, who
finished with 11 points and nine rebounds. “Really, sixth place out of
50 teams is really good. I’m proud of how this season went.”
What Grandview players will be left pondering this offseason is what
happens to their offense in the SunDome. After averaging 65.1 points per
game during the regular season, the Greyhounds’ scoring average fell to
52 points for the four state tournament games. A trend that Grandview
coach Scott Parrish knows goes back all the way to last year’s state
tournament, but he still loves to play in the building and was sad the
tournament is leaving town.
“The rims were not our friends, but we’re not fans of having to leave
here,” Parrish said. “(The tournament officials) do such a great job; we
hate that we’re leaving Yakima.”
As for the poor shooting, all Parrish can do is shrug his shoulders and
wonder what went wrong. Grandview got plenty of shots Saturday, taking
76 compared to Vashon Island’s 49. The Greyhounds managed to knock down
only 22 of those, though, to finish 28.9 percent from the field; their
starters were only 12 of 52 for the game.
Unlike their counterparts, the Pirates came out hot, with Shane Davis
hitting his first four shots of the game for nine of his game-high 22
points in the first quarter. They didn’t slow down as the game
progressed, finishing 46.9 percent from the field, and four players
finished in double figures.
Trailing 32-27 at the break, a slow Grandview start to the second half
allowed Vashon Island to get even more comfortable. The Pirates went on
an 11-2 run, with the 6-foot-7 Bryan Amstrup and Davis scoring four
points each during the stretch, to pad their lead.
Amstrup’s size forced Parrish to play a 2-3 zone to help his diminutive
squad matchup inside. The VI big man still went for 10 points and 15
rebounds for a double-double, though, and the strategy allowed more
damage to be done around the perimeter by players like Zac Andrus, who
finished with 16 points on 2-for-3 shooting from beyond the arc.
“We knew coming in that they had a lot of weapons that could hurt us,”
Parrish said. “Defense aside, they hit their shots pretty well and got
ahead as a result. We just couldn’t get back in it.”
Grandview did its best, cutting a 10-point deficit going into the fourth
quarter to five with 1 minute, 50 seconds remaining. Sophomore guard C.J.
Lopez, who finished with a team-high 21 points coming off the bench, led
the charge with 10 of those coming in the fourth. With the rest of his
teammates struggling to shoot, he finished 7 of 15 from the field and 5
of 11 from 3-point range.
VI hit 13 of 20 free throws in the final frame to quash any comeback
hopes. While the team did fall short of a chance to play in Saturday’s
championship game thanks to a fourth-quarter collapse Friday in a 37-34
loss to King’s, Lopez didn’t attribute the poor shooting to an emotional
hangover. The game also was actually a strong offensive night for both
teams at state. They combined for 126 points, the most scored in a boys
game at the tournament all week.
“We just were not able to hit the shots we’re used to (hitting),” Lopez
said.
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