In the last minute before tipoff Friday night, Brewster’s Michael Taylor came to the scorer’s table grimacing and looking for some water. He had swallowed a bug.

Over the next eight minutes, he would swallow Naches Valley and the Rangers’ 10-game winning streak. Whole.

Brewster's Michael Taylor, right, led all scorers with 27 points in the Bears' win over Naches Valley on Monday.   ANDY SAWYER/For the Yakima Herald-Republic View all photos for this story.

Consider these numbers put up by Taylor, the Bears’ two-time all-state guard-forward who will play next year for Eastern Washington University: 6-for-7 shooting, including 2-for-2 on 3-pointers, three steals, three rebounds and an assist.

In the first quarter.

By the end of that opening period, Brewster had built a 13-point lead on the unbeaten Rangers, and when the Bears scored the first 13 points of the second quarter, the game was essentially over. The only mystery left was the final score, which was 64-36.

“Ouch,” Naches Valley coach Jon Eldridge said with a rueful grin after watching his Rangers suffer their first loss of the season. “They’ve shown against East Valley (a game in which the Rangers rallied from 14 points down) that we could get down and still come back. Until we were down, oh, 30 or so, I really thought we could still come back and make a game out of it.

“I don’t really have an explanation for how we didn’t have the level of concentration and the level of intensity these kids are used to playing with.”

Here’s one: They ran into a Brewster team that, having played in three straight Class 1A state championship games and won two of them, never seems to play without that high level of intensity — at least in the SunDome.

Especially Michael Taylor. The 6-foot-3 senior finished with 27 points (on 11-for-16 shooting), five assists and six rebounds, and spent much of the last three quarters passing off, making sure his teammates were involved in the offense. And they were, with 6-4 junior Rocky Gipson contributing 10 points and super subs Austen Bensen and Nate Burgher combining to shoot 7-for-8.

“Gotta keep everybody involved,” Taylor said. “You never know when I might be missing my shots — I’m not going to stop shooting, but the other guys have got to know, whether I’m making or missing, I’m still going to get them the ball.”

Even without Hawkins Gebbers, now playing college baseball in California after sharing the scoring load with Taylor last year, the Bears (11-1) seem capable of playing for another title. Asked what it would take, Taylor was quick with an answer.

“Defense and offensive rebounds,” he said. “We know we can score. But (junior guard) Clay Gebbers is obviously one of the best defensive players in the state. I know, because he guards me every day in practice.”

That defense held the Rangers to 6-for-16 shooting in the first half, during which Naches Valley managed only five rebounds. The Rangers’ misery continued in the second half, when they missed 13 of 16 free throws.

The play of Matt Clark — who finished with 10 points on 5-for-10 shooting and seven rebounds — was one of the few bright spots for the Rangers, along with Kaleb Lounsbury (3-for-5, seven rebounds). But Eldridge knows more bright spots are ahead.

“They’ll respond. They’re great kids, hard-nosed kids. And they will respond,” Eldridge said.
“And they’ll need to — by next Friday, in fact. Because we have (to play) Grandview.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to correct erroneous information that appeared in the original version.