Curtis Overmatched In Title Game

The Curtis boys basketball team has done one thing better than almost any other 4A team all season: score.

Saturday night at the Tacoma Dome, the Vikings ran into a defense unlike any they had seen inside Washington state.

Parker Kelly scored 24 points, and Gonzaga Prep executed a defensive clinic to suffocate Curtis and win the 4A state title game with a 61-41 win at the Hardwood Classic at the Tacoma Dome.

Curtis entered the game averaging 77 points per contest in its three 4A state tourney games. But the Vikings struggled from the outset against the aggressive zone defense of the Bullpups in managing their second-lowest point total of the season.

The Vikings had thrived as of late due to their low-post game, in particular the play of Darius Johnson-Wilson, who had scored 35 points in his previous two contests. But Gonzaga Prep set out to stifle that aspect of their game from the start, throwing double-teams at Johnson-Wilson all night, limiting him to just one point on 0-for-2 shooting.

"We knew if he got it down low, we were going to lose the game," said Gonzaga Prep guard Chris Sarbaugh. "So we made sure we fronted it and got backside help the whole game."

The problems started early for Curtis, which picked up three team fouls in the opening two minutes and stayed in foul trouble all game long.

"We picked up a lot of offensive fouls, that really took our inside game away from us," Curtis head coach Tim Kelly said.

Curtis was coming off a tournament-best 65 percent shooting performance against Davis in the semifinal round, but struggled offensively from the start and finished the game connecting on just 13 of 40 shots.

Gonzaga Prep opened up an early lead and maintained it throughout the first half, shooting 46 percent from the field in the first two quarters in grabbing a 29-22 halftime lead.

The Vikings came out cold in the second half, going almost five minutes without scoring, as Gonzaga Prep stretch its lead to 19 late in the third quarter.

DaVonte Lacy tried to bring Curtis back in the fourth quarter, twice getting the Vikings to within ten points, but Kelly hit some big shots down the stretch to keep Gonzaga Prep in the lead.

The game featured an in-game, mini battle of Division I-bound guards in Lacy (WSU) and Sarbaugh (Gonzaga) and the two did not dissapoint. Lacy led Curtis with 24 points, while Sarbaugh finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.

"He's strong, very quick," Sarbaugh said of Lacy. "He's a really good player...I was happy that I got to guard him, because he was definitely a tough challenge for me." 

The loss was just the third of the year against a Washington State opponent for Curtis and Lacy remarked after the game that it may have been the toughest team the Vikings had faced all year.

"Gonzaga Prep was a good team," Lacy said. "I will lose to that team, I'll take that one. We didn't play our best, our shots weren't going down, but it's not bad to say that you're the second-best team. It would have been nice to be the first and get that state championship, but we came up short. It's all right to be second, this one time."