The resilient Bear Creek boys’ basketball team emerged victorious in their 2B state consolation bracket quarterfinal match against Soap Lake on this morning at Spokane Arena, defeating the Eagles 57-44.
Playing with pride after their first-round upset loss to Pe Ell on Wednesday, the No.1-ranked Grizzlies (24-2) were forced to an early-morning game to keep their trophy hopes alive.
A strong second-half effort against the Eagles put the Grizzlies within one game of bringing home some state hardware.
“For our boys to bounce back and give us all that really showed a ton about their character and resiliency,” noted Bear Creek coach Scott Moe. “Having to play at 9 a.m. is not an easy thing to do, and I thought our guys handled it well.”
Led by Soap Lake senior Kyler Moats’ 19 points, the Eagles had taken the lead during the second quarter before Bear Creek tightened up its defense after halftime, holding the Eagles to just four in the third period to break the game open.
“We started getting a little tight, but our boys bounced back, executed, and started playing ‘D’ in the third quarter,” Moe said. “It wasn’t pretty, but we got the job done.”
With the game well in hand, the team suffered a scare early in the fourth quarter when star guard Jamie Meyer was elbowed above his right eye and started bleeding. He received medical attention for the cut and later re-entered the game with his head wrapped up, finishing with a game-high 21 points.
Moe said Meyer will play in tomorrow’s 11 a.m. game against Life Christian (18-12), a team the Grizzlies beat, 60-46, in last week’s Tri-District semifinal.
“He was huge, he scored some in transition, out of our offense, he hit couple threes as well,” Moe said of Meyer. “He played great.”
Senior Kyle Blankenbeckler also had a big game, scoring 11, and senior Ryan Strandin added six points and nine boards.
“After what happened (in the first round), we met as a team and had to readjust our goals,” said Moe, whose team now has their sights set on ending the season a state trophy.
If the Grizzlies beat Life Christian, then they will play in the 5th/8th-place game on Saturday.
In the Grizzlies’ opening-round matchup, they were simply not able to overcome the Pe Ell Trojans’ hot shooting, including a barrage of three-pointers. To make matters worse, Bear Creek missed key shots of their own down the stretch.
“We missed a lot of layins, and a lot of free throws,” Moe said. “It was just one of those games… it was a tough one.”
Playing aggressively in the paint, the Grizzlies unfortunately got into foul trouble as a team in the second half, enabling the Trojans to take 20 attempts from the charity stripe in the game to the Grizzlies’ five, which proved to be the difference as the Trojans, up 59-57, made four free throws with less than a minute left on the clock to keep the game at two possessions.
The Trojans were led by Hank Robinson and his game-hgh 24 points, while Lucas Peterson led the Grizzlies with 18 and Strandin added 17.
Going in as one of the clear-cut favorites, the loss — and with it the hopes of a Bear Creek state title — stung hard.
“We had our eyes pretty much set on one goal,” Moe said. “We had some tears in the locker room for those guys, they had their eyes set on a gold ball.”
