The Bear Creek boys basketball team survived a big-time scare by Seattle Academy Tuesday night.
The Grizzlies fended off a furious fourth-quarter comeback by the Cardinals and pulled out a 52-48 nonleague victory at home.
Bear Creek led 37-22 after three quarters, but the Cardinals stormed back before clutch free-throw shooting late in the game enabled the Grizzlies to sneak away with the win.
Junior Jamie Meyer scored 27 points, including 6 of 7 from the line in the final two minutes, to help the Grizzlies (2-0) remain undefeated.
Sophomore guard Josh Firminger scored 10 points – all in the first half – as the Grizzlies got off to a roaring start.
Bear Creek, which finished fifth at the Class 2B state tournament last season, built an 11-4 lead early on the strength of 4-for-4 shooting in the first quarter. The Grizzlies maintained control of the game in the second quarter. A three-pointer from the corner by Firminger gave the Grizzlies a 17-11 lead and sparked an 8-0 run.
The Cardinals, who play in the 1A Emerald City League, struggled from the field in the first half, shooting 6-of-13 as a team and was just 2-of-6 from the line. Meanwhile the Grizzlies shot an a torrid 10 of 13 from the field, including 2 of 2 from beyond the arc.
“We really wanted to contain their penetration … and we wanted to rebound,” said Bear Creek head coach Scott Moe on his team’s strategy against the tough Cardinal team. “We did a good job of that in the first half, we gave them only two (offensive) boards.”
The third period was more of the same, as Meyer poured in nine points, two more than the Cardinals scored as a team.
FOURTH QUARTER FIASCO
The game looked to be a lock for the Grizzlies when 6-foot-2 freshman guard Lucas Fernandez’s layup made the score 41-28 in favor of the Grizzlies with just over four minutes left in the game.
But the Cardinals proved that no lead is safe as senior guard Kyle Terriere, who scored a team-high 16 points, led the comeback. Terriere, the leading scorer for boys’ soccer in the Emerald City League during the fall, drained two three pointers, the latter of which closed the gap to 41-38, capping a 10-0 Cardinal run.
Seattle Academy guard Rian Claxton made two more from beyond the arc to eventually tie the score 44-44 with just under a minute left in the game.
Having passed the team foul limit with less than a minute to go, the Cardinals took their chances by sending Bear Creek to the line time and time again, and unlike last Saturday’s game against Overlake, when the Grizzlies missed 11 free throws in the final frame, this time around they performed from the charity stripe.
Michael Davisson went 2 of 3 and Meyer went 6 of 7 from the line during the game’s final two minutes, including a clutch free throw by Meyer to make it 52-48 with 2.3 seconds left on the clock.
“We’ve been working on free throws in practice,” said Meyer when asked how he was able to handle the pressure with the game on the line. “I had it running through my head that ‘I’ve earned these.’ You put in the work, and it’s no different from practice, you just gotta knock ‘em down.”
The 6-foot-2 guard led the offense, finishing with 27 points on 7-of-9 shooting and draining 11 of his 15 free throws, while sophomore guard Josh Firminger added 10, all in the first half.
FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH
Moe admitted that his squad, which has no senior, has a lot to take away from this game that almost ended in a heartbreaking defeat.
“It’s a lot more fun to learn after a win … but we did not take care of the ball,” said Moe about his squad’s fourth-quarter effort, which included 12 turnovers. “They went into pressure mode and we went into panic mode … Our team is young, and our youth really showed.”
But in the end, the Grizzlies’ proficiency from the line bailed them out of a game that could have easily gone the other way, as Seattle Academy was able to score an astounding 26 points in the final eight minutes of play, two more than they did in the first three quarters.
“I had the guys come in early, stay late, come before school (to practice free throws). Tonight in the fourth quarter we were 11 out of 16, that’s a little improvement from last week,” said Moe with a hint of sarcasm.
Seattle Academy (1-2) is a much-improved 1A Emerald City League power with senior leadership and raw talent. Moe believes that playing an elite team early in the season may have been one of the best possible scenarios for his young group.
“We like to face good competition because that’s where you get your weaknesses exposed,” Moe said. “It was a good experience for us.”
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UPDATE: STRANDIN OUT FOR THE SEASON
If the Bear Creek boys basketball team is going to make a return trip to the Class 2B state tournament this season, the Grizzlies will have to do it without their best big man.
Ryan Strandin, a 6-foot-6 sophomore, suffered a concussion during a soccer game almost two months ago when he was elbowed in the head. Strandin has not played in the Grizzlies’ first two games – both wins – and was advised by his doctor before Tuesday’s game against Seattle Academy to not participate in any sports for the next six months.
Bear Creek coach Scott Moe confirmed on Wednesday that Strandin will sit out the rest of the season in order to avoid any long-term injuries to his brain.
“Anytime you’re dealing with the brain, it’s a little bit scary,” said Bear Creek basketball coach Scott Moe. “It changes what we had planned a little bit, but we’ve been playing a lot without him, so we’ll be fine.”
