YAKIMA — One other day, one other double-digit deficit.
In every of its two earlier Class 1A state event video games, the Seton Catholic boys basketball crew made a behavior of falling behind early solely to return again with a vengeance down the stretch.
By Friday, the Cougars ran out of gasoline. No. 6 seed Seton Catholic suffered a 68-48 loss to No. 7 Meridian at Yakima SunDome and noticed its season finish one win shy of the trophy spherical.
Led by Talon Jenkins’ 21 factors, the Trojans shot an environment friendly 27 of 49 (55 p.c) from the ground and constructed a 36-23 halftime lead.
Exterior capturing was an enormous a part of Seton’s success in a comeback win over Cashmere on Wednesday and a livid rally towards Zillah on Thursday, however the Cougars by no means obtained on monitor towards Meridian, capturing 6 of 35 (17 p.c) from deep. Meridian held a double-digit lead for everything of the second half.
“Honestly, it was just the ball wasn’t going in,” Seton Catholic senior Rico George mentioned. “We got the shots we wanted. They just hit more shots than we did. The nature of the game, if you have a bad shooting night, it’s gonna be a tough game to win, so that’s kind of just what happened.”
George led the Cougars with 20 factors and sophomore Kaiden Wilson added 13 factors.
Although the Cougars didn’t wish to make excuses for the consequence, they acknowledged fatigue performed an element of their third sport in as many days, particularly after two pedal-to-the-metal performances in prior days.
“We knew it was going to be tough coming in, we knew we couldn’t get down. … I think the second quarter for each of our (three) games have been just a hole,” Seton Catholic coach Donald Wilson mentioned. “We’re not at full strength physically right now, but for us, it’s no excuse. … I’m proud of how they figured out how to get to this point. Tonight, we kind of just ran out of gas.”
Seniors George, Brady Angelo, Mason Glassmire, Lance Lee and Tyler Tran had been on the forefront of elevating the Cougars’ program to new heights with three straight state event appearances, highlighted by a sixth-place end in 2024.
Their success constructed a basis for others to comply with sooner or later, coach Wilson mentioned.
“This is the best group ever,” George mentioned. “We don’t see any faults in the people that we got in that locker room, and we just love each other. I’m just proud of everything that we’ve done.”
MERIDIAN 68, SETON CATHOLIC 48
MERIDIAN (19-9) — Talon Jenkins 21, Damion Hayes 0, Jaeger Fyfe 8, Canyon James 0, Brock Haugen 0, Matthew Blankenburg 6, Daniel Larsen 0, Trey Alexander 5, Gabe Galbraith 0, Pierce Brzozowski 16, Josiah Harris 0, James Hedahl 12. Totals 27 (8) 6-10 68.
SETON CATHOLIC (19-8) — Tyler Tran 6, Mason Glassmire 0, Brady Angelo 5, Rico George 20, Lance Lee 2, Roberto Valdez 0, Kaiden Wilson 13, Ben Deochand 2. Totals 19 (6) 4-13 48.
Meridian 14 22 17 15—68
Seton 12 11 12 13—48
