YAKIMA – You may by no means depend out the Comeback Cougars.
At some point after overcoming a 17-point deficit to increase its season, Seton Catholic almost pulled off an even bigger comeback within the quarterfinals of the Class 1A boys basketball state event.
Trailing by 21 factors within the third quarter, Seton Catholic misplaced to reigning state champ Zillah 61-59 on a buzzer-beating putback Thursday on the Yakima Valley SunDome.
Hope was dim for the No. 6 seed Cougars, who trailed 50-30 to the No. 5 Leopards with two minutes left within the third quarter. However this workforce was removed from performed, not with 4 senior starters again from final yr together with sophomore Trico League MVP Kaiden Wilson.
Confidence in a comeback was excessive for Seton. Wednesday, the Cougars overcame a 17-point third-quarter deficit to beat Cashmere 68-61 in a loser-out Spherical of 12 sport.
“The level of trust is just different,” stated senior guard Rico George. “Going out of our huddles in those last couple of minutes, we were telling each other ‘let it fly.’ Any opening, just let that ball fly. That’s the level of trust that we have in each other to make shots. Luckily some of them fell. It just wasn’t enough.”
George scored 17 factors, together with three baskets in fast succession early within the fourth quarter to spark Seton’s momentum.
Wilson then took over down the stretch. He shook off a tough first half, wherein he was 3 of 14 from the sector, and performed a lot of the fourth quarter with 4 fouls.
However that didn’t put a damper on the 6-foot-6 capturing guard. Wilson scored 11 of his 25 factors within the ultimate 4 minutes, together with Seton’s final eight factors.
“He’s one of a kind,” George stated of Wilson. “He can do pretty much anything. Not a lot of weaknesses. What we saw in our gameplan is that they didn’t have anyone who could match up with him both size-wise and speed-wise. Down the stretch we were like ‘give it to Kaiden, get out of the way and let him go to work.’ ”
Wilson hit a jumper to tie the sport 57-57 with below a minute to play. Zillah then went to its star Dekker Van De Graaf, who put the Leopards forward 59-57 and completed with 28 factors.
Wilson countered, drawing a foul and hitting two free throws to tie the sport with 19.6 seconds to play.
Zillah drew up its ultimate play, getting the ball to River Buck for a mid-range try within the ultimate seconds. The shot missed, however Memphis Jones slashed by means of the important thing for a putback basket simply earlier than the ultimate buzzer sounded.
“It came down to a rebound and it bounced the other way,” Seton coach Donald Wilson stated. “You could look at a couple things, if we could have got this or that. But a hell of a game.”
After inserting sixth final yr, Seton Catholic nonetheless hopes to earn the second state trophy in program historical past. The following step arrives at 12:15 p.m. Friday within the fourth-place semifinal towards No. 7 seed Meridian.
ZILLAH 61, SETON CATHOLIC 59
SETON CATHOLIC (19-7) — Tyler Tran 0, Mason Glassmire 3, Brady Angelo 9, Lance Lee 5, Roberto Valdez 0, Kaiden Wilson 25. Totals 22 (7) 8-11 59.
ZILLAH (21-4) — Jayden Saenz 0, Julian Calzada 3, RJ Curfman 0, Memphis Jones 21, River Buck 5, X Castilleja 4, Dekker Van De Graaf 28, Jaxon Maras 0. Totals 24 (7) 6-10 61.
Seton Catholic 9 11 16 23 — 59
Zillah 11 20 21 9 — 61