Coach lights fire as Garfield rallies for third | 4A Boys Consolation

TACOMA — Disinterest landed Garfield in a 19-point hole in the second quarter.

Desire, jump-started by coach Ed Haskins, snapped the Bulldogs out of their haze and lifted them to a 75-68 win over Davis of Yakima on Saturday at the Tacoma Dome for third place in the Class 4A boys basketball tournament.

Relegated to a late-morning consolation game, the aftermath of a semifinal loss Friday to Gonzaga Prep, the top-ranked Bulldogs (24-4) played a sluggish first half. They were out-rebounded and had six of shots blocked by Davis before halftime.

Then Haskins drew his first technical foul of the season.

"I felt I needed to get it to get the team going," Haskins said, chuckling. "It was pretty calculated. I'm not that smart, but sometimes I can get some things right."

The Bulldogs committed back-to-back turnovers after Haskins' T, then went on an 8-1 run in the final 90 seconds of the first half, and followed with 14 unanswered points to open the second half.

Haskins delivered "some choice words" at halftime that revived Garfield's defensive intensity. The Bulldogs used a frantic trap to force Davis (21-6) into four turnovers and 0-for-5 shooting in the first three minutes after halftime.

"The adjustment was in the energy," Haskins said. "You have to decide to do it. We came out very disappointed by not playing at 9 o'clock (in the 4A title game). We just had to get over that. It took the last two minutes of the second quarter and the second half to prove that we wanted to go out as a winner."

The score was tied at 60 with 6:23 left, but Davis went the next five minutes without a field goal as Garfield built an 11-point lead with less than two minutes to play.

Senior Tony Wroten scored 18 of his game-high 28 points in the second half and had 16 rebounds for the Bulldogs. Tucker Haymond scored 13 (11 in the second half) and fellow sophomore Daeshon Hall finished with 12.

Cooper Kupp and Markus McClurkin led Davis with 18 points apiece.

David Trimble was the Pirates' top scorer at halftime (11 points) but did not attempt a shot in the second half.

"The spirit was good (at the start of the game)," Haskins said, "but it was like, OK if we do (play hard), OK if we don't — it doesn't really matter. Then we got down 19 points at one point. I think that kind of shocked us.

"So hats off to my kids," he said. "My guys have the hearts of champions, and we wanted to show that."

How would Haskins assess a season in which Garfield spent most of the year ranked No. 1?

"We're 24-4, KingCo champs three times in a row, third place in state — at any other school, this is a tremendously successful season, and I'm going to say it's a successful season for us, too," he said. "We didn't get what we wanted (a state title) — oh, well.

"The rankings all year long? Those are for you guys (reporters). We did what we did. We didn't go as far as we could go, but I'm excited about what we did and about our future."

Haskins paused for a moment when asked if he was satisfied with third place.

"Content would probably be the better word," he said.

"I'm content with it because there are things you can't control. My brother always told me the measure of a man is what he does with what he can't control. I can't control that we lost the game yesterday, but we could control what we did against a very good Davis team today. We beat them, so hats off to my kids.

"Sometimes in this tournament, just like the NCAA tournament, the best team doesn't win," he said. "I still think we're the best team. I'm proud of my guys. They showed a lot of heart. We made a little adjustment at halftime and they executed. Really, that's what it comes down to: execution, rebounds and free throws. We did that and showed a lot of heart."

Fourth-sixth

Olympia 77, Kentridge 67

It was an ending Kentridge could be proud of. The Chargers played the 8 a.m. consolation game against Olympia for fourth and sixth place like it was for the state championship.

They came up short, but coach Dave Jamison cared more about the effort and pride his players showed than the final score.

"That was a great game," Jamison said. "You couldn't tell if it was 8 o'clock in the morning or 8 o'clock at night. That was the perfect ending. It would have been nice to win, of course, but fourth or sixth, that didn't matter. What mattered to me was how our kids came out and played and stuck together. We were a class act."

Gary Bell scored 28 points in his final high-school game, and Denzel Daniels scored 15 and Brendan Westendorf 12 for the eighth-ranked Chargers (21-10).

The ninth-ranked Bears were led by Seattle Pacific-bound senior Alex Weber-Brader, who had 32 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. He hit 10 of 12 free throws.

Times staff reporter Mason Kelley contributed to this report.