YAKIMA — Because the Columbia River boys basketball group ran again to the locker room celebrating its most consequential win of the season, the Rapids yelled two phrases that fairly nicely summed up the final two weeks.
“Nobody believed!” Gamers repeated time and again.
That’s, besides the Rapids themselves.
The No. 11 seed Rapids took down No. 1 Lynden 41-38 on Friday morning within the Class 2A state fourth-place semifinals after dealing with a first-half deficit as massive as 15 factors.
The bounce-back win, after struggling a loss to Selah within the quarterfinals Thursday, made sure the Rapids will take residence their first state trophy since 2018. River will face both Mark Morris or Franklin Pierce within the fourth-sixth place sport on Saturday at 8 a.m.
“We believe because we know how good of a group we are,” stated River’s John Reeder, considered one of 5 seniors on the group. “Even though we suffered a bad loss last game, we know it’s not (us) playing to our full strengths. We know if we can, we can do stuff like that we just did.”
River coach Mark Ganter referred to as Friday’s matchup “David versus Goliath,” each in seeding and stature.
“Like Muhammad Ali said, we shook up the world,” Ganter stated.
Lynden’s Brant Heppner, a 6-foot-5 submit, hammered River within the paint with 19 factors and 10 rebounds within the first half, serving to the Lions achieve a 25-16 lead at halftime.
The undersized Rapids acknowledged they needed to crash the boards tougher and key in on Heppner. They held Lynden to simply 13 factors within the second half.
Seniors Ari Richardson and Aaron Hoey hit back-to-back 3-pointers to tie the sport on the finish of the third quarter, earlier than River took its first lead of the sport, 31-30, on a Richardson free throw one minute into the fourth.
“That could’ve been our last game, so we just went out there and put it all on the floor,” Hoey stated. “We stuck with them and it gave us hope. We just went out there and kept playing.”
With six lead adjustments within the fourth, the Rapids took management for good when Richardson hit two free throws on the 1:57 mark. Richardson, who completed with 13 factors, went 6 for six from the road inside the ultimate two minutes. Hoey led the Rapids with 15 factors and Reeder had a double-double of 10 factors and 10 rebounds.
After ending third within the 2A Larger St. Helens League behind fellow state quarterfinalists R.A. Lengthy and Mark Morris, River used its No. 11 seed as motivation getting into the 2A state event.
Seeding is only a quantity, because the Rapids confirmed in handing No. 1 Lynden solely its third lack of the season, and second in as many days after falling to No. 10 Prosser within the quarterfinals.
“We were focused,” Richardson stated.
COLUMBIA RIVER 41, LYNDEN 38
COLUMBIA RIVER (21-6) — Alex Pont 0, Ari Richardson 13, Kellen Clary 2, John Reeder 10, Tyler Miles 0, Luca Phillips 1, Aaron Hoey 15. Totals 15 (2) 9-13 41.
LYNDEN (25-3) — Jayden Navarre 0, Gordy Bedlington 0, Brody Worth 0, Malachi Bowman 0, Malachi Koenen 0, Jack Stapleton 8, Brant Heppner 25, Ty Jorgenson 3, Spencer Adams 2. Totals 14 (1) 9-14 38.
Col. River 6 10 14 11—41
Lynden 15 10 5 8—38