The red, white and blue ABA basketball should have been a dead-giveaway that the fans were in for a show Friday, March 14 at the 7th annual Cloud 9 South Sound Classic at Auburn High School. It was the best of the boys 4A Narrows matched-up against the best of the 3A Narrows and the game would come down to the wire with two Lucious Brown free throws capturing the 113-111 victory for the 4A team with 11 seconds remaining in the game.
Brown, Stadium’s MVP of the 4A Narrows League season, also took home MVP honors for the night finishing with a game-high 19 points, sealing the win and stopping the 3A’s mad comeback with a last-second steal off of Lincoln’s Londrell Hamilton.
With 4:30 remaining in the game, the 4As held a 107-91 lead and looked to have the contest under wraps. The 3A team would end the game on a 20-6 run, erasing an 8-point lead in the final 1:11.
After two made free throws by Foss’ Olashawan Miller, the 3As full-court pressure led to an errant pass by Brown and it was Miller stealing the ball and finding an open Ivy Smith Jr. who coolly knocked-in a 3-pointer from the far elbow with 46 seconds to play closing the deficit to 111-108.
For the first time in the game, the 4A squad looked rushed and unsure of what to do next as they turned the ball over again on their end of the floor. Wilson’s Smith walked the ball back up the court, worked off a screen and stroked a 3-pointer from the near elbow and the game was tied at 111-111 with 13 seconds left.
“I wanted to slow it down because everybody just wanted to shoot the ball,” said Smith. “Let’s slow it down and then I got a little pick going on and saw my defender go under the screen and thought I might as well take the shot and go for the dagger.”
Bodies collided on the following 4A inbound pass and Brown found himself at the free throw line where he closed out the game’s scoring. As Londrell Hamilton approached his 3-point line with time running out, Brown snatched the ball from behind and the game was over.
“At the beginning of the game we decided we were going to pass the ball around and not get too selfish and ball-hog,” said Brown. “We just played together like a team, passed it around and when somebody got open we took the shot. It worked out for us.”
It was an exciting game that saw the teams connect on a total of 26 three-pointers, throw down seven slam dunks, including two fast break alley-oops and 13 players finished scoring in double figures. It very well could have been called the Tacoma All-Star Game as 15 hoopsters from the City of Destiny filled out the 23 roster spots between the two teams.
“It was a great game and the 4As came out and worked hard,” said Wilson and 4A game coach Dave Alwert. “They were tired and worked their tails off out there. Our two bigger kids ran the floor really well and really brought a charge. I think they were the difference in the ballgame. The 3A’s were the more talented team but the 4As simply out-worked them in an all-star game.”
Miller and Smith combined for 13 points apiece, all in the second half as the 3As climbed back into the game. Wilson’s Keun Thompson scored 12 points in the second quarter and finished with a team-high 18 points.
Foss’ Ar’Mond Davis, the 3A Narrows scoring champion, electrified the crowd with three deep 3-pointers and two vicious dunks, the last on an alley-oop feed from Wilson forward Alphonso Anderson.
Stadium’s Bobby Moorehead had a solid performance with 11 points, while Bellarmine sophomore Malachi Flynn seemed unfazed by the big game, directing the 4A offense and adding 8 points as well.
“I was just coming out to play as hard as I can and help us win this game,” said Flynn. “I’ve played with and against all those guys before so I wasn’t really nervous. It felt good to be here as a sophomore.”
SCORING TOTALS4A NARROWS: Mitch Fettig 10, Elijah Fuller 12, Malachi Flynn 8, Khaul Matheney 12, Austin Murray 14, Bobby Moorehead 11, Caulin Bakalarski 16, Christian Davis 2, Nick Edens 9, Lucious Brown 19.
3A NARROWS: Trevion Brown 16, Londrell Hamilton 5, Ivy Smith Jr. 13, Montre Brown 2, David Jenkins 12, Jamal Welch 8, Olashawan Miller 13, Justus Martion 1, Ar’Mond Davis 15, Keun Thompson 18, Alphonso Anderson 8, Josiah Barsh.