YAKIMA — Within the hardest of defeats, the R.A. Lengthy Lumberjacks held their heads excessive.
With out query, R.A. Lengthy’s 62-54 loss to Bremerton within the Class 2A boys basketball state semifinals left the Lumberjacks reeling. However in a sport that had 12 lead adjustments, together with seven within the fourth quarter, the ‘Jacks had a solution for practically every part the Knights threw their method.
That was till Bremerton’s Junior Davis-McWhorter hit two 3-pointers inside two minutes, together with the dagger with 38 seconds left, to ship the Knights to Saturday’s 2A state championship sport in opposition to Prosser.
R.A. Lengthy (24-2), which misplaced its first sport since December, will face Selah within the third-place sport at 11:15 a.m. Saturday.
“We made a run at it, we had a chance … we kept fighting the whole time,” R.A. Lengthy coach Jeray Key mentioned.
“(I’m) still proud of these guys. They did something special, and we’re not done yet.”
R.A. Lengthy’s vaunted protection gave up a season excessive in factors to a flexible Bremerton crew led by 19 factors apiece from Davis-McWhorter and Jalen Davis. Frank Allen and Jaydon Turner every chipped in 12 factors. The Knights shot 22 of 25 (62 p.c) from the ground and hit eight 3-pointers.
“They made some tough shots, to be honest,” Key mentioned.
“They’re a good team, they can make shots, they’ve got a lot of guards. We didn’t execute enough defensively.”
The Lumberjacks made their share of robust photographs as nicely.
After battling foul bother within the first half, junior Joshua Crane hit two go-ahead photographs within the fourth, together with a tricky fadeaway to place the ‘Jacks up 46-45 with 5 minutes left.
However after a go-ahead layup from TraMayne Jenkins, Bremerton bounced again with 5 straight factors — a three-point play transformed by Davis-McWhorter and an Allen layup — to take the lead for good with three minutes to play.
Crane and Landon Irwin every scored 11 factors to guide R.A. Lengthy.
Making its second 2A state semifinal look in 4 years, R.A. Lengthy has set a regular of reaching the dome yearly with 4 consecutive appearances.
However just like the Lumberjacks’ 2022 semifinal loss to Lynden, they’ve come up simply wanting reaching the most important stage. There’s no scarcity of gasoline so as to add to the crew’s hearth going into subsequent season.
“Making history (with) how many years R.A. Long has been (to state) … it’s special,” Key mentioned. “You want to get here, but at the end of the day, it’s all about, when you get knocked down, how do you fight back? It’s all right to be disappointed and cry right now, but they got to pick their heads up. If they want to do this again next year, we got to work for it. Eventually, we’ll get over the hump.”
BREMERTON 62, R.A. LONG 54
BREMERTON (21-5) — Enoch Taylor 0, Aaron Matthews 0, Frank Allen 12, Dallin Anderson 0, Junior Davis-McWhorter 19, Jalen Davis 19, Jaydon Turner 12, Jay Beahan 0. Totals 22 (8) 10-14 62.
Bremerton 11 14 17 20—62
R.A. Lengthy 8 16 16 14—54
