It wasn’t easy, but the Bear Creek boys’ basketball team survived a sluggish start and an eventual overtime scare in a 74-70 win against Life Christian Friday morning and then handily beat Colfax, 63-33, on Saturday to claim the fifth-place trophy at the Class 2B state tournament at Spokane Arena.

“On Saturday, we had talked all season about playing our best game on the last day of the year, and we truly did,” said Grizzlies’ coach Scott Moe. “We played the best basketball this team has ever played, and it was fun to go out for our three seniors, Kyle (Blankenbecker), Jamie (Meyer) and Michael (Davisson). It was a fun journey, a fun ride.”

In the pivotal game against Life Christian — a the team that Bear Creek defeated in last month’s Tri-District semifinals, 60-46 — the Grizzlies got off to another one of their uncharacteristic slow starts that has plagued them this postseason.

The Grizzlies were down 17-5 after one quarter on just 2-of-7 shooting, and compounding their problems was the fact that senior star guard Jamie Meyer suffered a cut in his head in last Thursday’s win and was not feeling well afterward.

“Jamie was up all night puking, and he did not sleep much at all,” recalled Moe. “(After) he got hit in the head, he had to go get stitches and then got sick that night. We fell behind 17-5 and just couldn’t get anything going, but in the second quarter we just came out blazing.

“It would have been easy just to give up and say, ‘our time is done,’ but our guys just wanted to fight and fight.”

With their tournament life on the line, the Grizzlies responded with a 26-point second quarter to take a 31-29 lead heading into the locker room at halftime.

The Eagles hung around and drained four three-pointers in the final period to force overtime at 65-65 — the Grizzlies’ first overtime game of the season. To make matters worse, Bear Creek’s 6-foot-6 forward Ryan Strandin, who had pulled in 14 rebounds during the game, fouled out just before overtime began.

Undaunted, the Grizzlies held off the Eagles 9-5 in the overtime period to pull out the win, aided by one crucial play, with the score tied 70-70, that can only be described as a true team effort.

“Lucas Peterson drove, got hit and lost the ball and went out and shot it, he fell on his back, then the ball comes back to him,” Moe recalled. “In the key, on his back, he catches it and throws it out to Kyle, who throws it to Jamie, who drills a three to put us up 73-70 in overtime.”

Meyer scored 24 points, including hitting 4 of his 5 shots from 3-point range. Lucas Peterson, a junior, scored 16, and Strandin had a strong double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds, 11 of them on the defensive end.

“Jamie was sick, didn’t sleep, got stitches and he goes 4-for-5 from three-point land for 24 points,” Moe marveled. “That was a great, fun, exhausting win for us.”

In the 5th/8th place final against Colfax, the Bulldogs’ strategy of perimeter shooting backfired as the Grizzlies’ defense stifled Colfax’s sharp shooters.

The Bulldogs, who made only one of 14 attempted treys in the first half, scored just two points in the first quarter and were down 29-11 at the half, never posing a threat.

For the game, Colfax shot just 23 percent from the field. Peterson scored a career-high 28 points, including three 3-pointers.

“At one point he had out-scored Colfax by himself 26 to 19,” Moe said of his sharp-shooting guard. “He made a statement for what he’s going to do next year, he was just taking it to the hole, and Jamie at this point had nothing left. He was just on fumes.”

Strandin, who Moe described as simply “a beast” during the final two games of the tournament, had another monster game on the boards against Colfax, finishing with 16 points and 17 rebounds.

Meyer, playing in his last game as a Grizzly, scored 13. Blankenbecker grabbed six boards and dished out five assists, while the team’s other senior, Davisson, made his only field goal attempt and contributed five boards.

During the pre-game ceremony just prior to the Colfax game, it finally dawned on Moe that this would be the final time that he would see his senior leaders suit up for a Bear Creek basketball game.

“I don’t think anybody saw me, but during the anthem of our last game, I was just bawling like a baby,” Moe said. “I’ve had these kids now for four years and have been with them every step of the way. We figured out that they went 86-15 in their four years here. It was a nice little run for those guys.”

Jamie Meyer was named to the All-Tournament first team and Strandin, who averaged a tournament-best 13.5 rebounds per game, was named to the second team.

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“We’re blessed to have some good kids coming back, and we’ve got some young kinds chompin’ at the bit to step up. I think we’ll be all right, but we’ll definitely miss the leadership of Jamie, Kyle and Michael, three wonderful, incredible kids that are great basketball players and more than that, just great kids.” — Bear Creek coach Scott Moe.