The Bear Creek School boys’ basketball team overcame a hot-shooting Chief Leschi squad and a double-digit deficit early at the 2B Tri-District tournament championship game to win their second district title in three years, 52-41, at Chief Leschi School in Puyallup last Saturday.

The Grizzlies, riding a 19-game winning streak, improved to 23-1 and kick off their Class 2B state run Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. against Pe Ell at Spokane Arena. visit Click here to view the 2B state tournament brackets.

Bear Creek experienced an uncharacteristic slow start against the Warriors, who drained four three-pointers in the first quarter and jumped out to a 20-12 lead.

Unlike nearly all of the Grizzlies’ previous matchups, Bear Creek didn’t jump out to an early lead, in fact, they were behind for the entire first half as the Warriors were red-hot from the floor and owned the Grizzlies on the boards.

“We kinda started off slow, and they hit four threes in the first quarter and all of a sudden we’re down by eight,” recalled Bear Creek head coach Scott Moe, whose team was outrebounded, 6-3, in the first quarter. “We just made a few tweaks in our defense, and on offense we were getting good looks, but our shots just were not falling.”

The No. 1-ranked Grizzlies trailed 27-21 at halftime, but they didn’t panic, and Moe rejuvenated his squad with a halftime pep talk.

“We tell our guys all the time, just keep playing our game, we got four quarters, 32 minutes,” Moe said. “After that, our shots just started falling, and I thought our defense was pretty darn good after the first quarter.”

Junior guard Lucas Peterson’s sweet stroke came through for the Grizzlies in the third quarter as he drained back-to-back three pointers to pull his team even with the Warriors, at 31-31, midway through the quarter. From then on, it was all Grizzlies as they clamped down on defense, holding Chief Leschi to just 14 second-half points on 5-of-28 shooting.

“These guys don’t get rattled,” Moe said. “They’re poised, they show great composure.”

Down the stretch, perhaps no one came up bigger than 6-foot-6 forward Ryan Strandin, who had gotten into foul trouble early but grabbed four of his 10 rebounds in the fourth quarter, making his presence felt down low when the Grizzlies needed it most.

Strandin’s efforts prevented the Warriors from getting crucial put-backs that could have led to a fourth-quarter rally down the stretch.

“Strandin came up huge for us inside the paint,” Moe said. “He played huge, but this was a great experience for us. We’ve gotten to play them now three times on their home court, it was good stuff.”

For the Grizzlies, senior guard Jamie Meyer shot 9-of-14 from the field for 22 points, Peterson added 12 and fellow senior Kyle Blankenbeckler put in nine, including hitting all four of his free throws in the fourth quarter to keep the Warriors at bay.

Chief Leschi was led by seniors Joey Bisson with 11, and Ali Ahmed with 10.

“We feel amazing,” Strandin said after winning the Tri-District championship. “It was a team effort, Jamie had a lot of really good shots. We were just working hard, working our transition, and it turned out well for us.”

The 2B Grizzlies’ only defeat of the season was a 61-51 loss to 4A Lake Washington, which advanced to this week’s Class 4A state tournament.

Playing a tough non-league schedule, including the game against the Kangaroos, will help the Grizzlies this week in Spokane, Moe said.

“Our mindset all season has been to become the best team we possibly can be,” he said. “We still got six more days, and we’re still trying to get better. Keep working, keep improving… and keep going at it hard.”

If there is one chink in the Grizzlies’ armor, it may be the uncharacteristic slow starts that plagued them in not only the Tri-District championship, but also their opening-round Tri-District matchup against Seattle Lutheran, where they were down 20-10 after the first quarter.

“We started a little slow today, and I think if we can overcome that, we have a good shot,” Strandin said of his team’s mindset going into the state tournament. “We feel pretty confident.”