By Karrington Kincaid, The Seattle Medium
A thrilling basketball game was set to tip-off between the Rainier Beach Vikings (7-5, 5-5 in Metro) and the West Seattle Wildcats (8-8, 4-5 in Metro). With the music blasting and the crowd getting hyped, the atmosphere felt more like a playoff game as opposed to a regular-season game.
Rainier Beach Head Coach Mike Bethea had a specific outlook on his team that could possibly boost them going into the postseason.
“You want to be kind of starting to peak [at the right time],” said Bethea. “The problems you have a lot of the times is that you peak too early…. And the thing is you’re going to hit that slump at some point in time during the season, but with us, we’ve hit ours early. So, I’m hoping that it’s all behind us.”
Heading into the game, West Seattle Head Coach Dan Kriley felt good about his team’s chance to win against an aggressive Beach Boys team.
“We had a good run against them at our place,” said Kriley. “We picked up 7-point “W,” so you know they’re going to be fired up; we’re kind of neck-and-neck as far as standings go, so it’s going to be a tough ball game. It’s always a ‘beach,’ but we’re looking forward to it.”
As the first quarter tipped off, West Seattle came out hot led by Guard Alex Pierce scoring a three-point shot and the two-point shot along with forward Nathan Schiavo scoring on a pair of two-point shots. The Wildcats’ defense showed out with Bo Gionet getting a steal from Rainier Beach guard Kaden Powers setting up a routine layup, helping the Wildcats close out the first quarter with a 14-8 lead.
The second quarter showed a different story as the Vikings, led by Darius Wilcher, came out on fire. Wilcher had a pair of two-pointers and a three-pointer, as the Vikings began to close the gap. West Seattle matched the energy of the Vikings as the Wildcats’ Alex Pierce scored a two-pointer and a three-pointer along with some free throws to give him eight total points in the quarter. After a hard-fought second quarter, the Wildcats would take a 28-27 lead over the Vikings going into halftime.
The intense competition between the two teams continued during the third quarter. Rainier Beach Guard Kaden Powers played magnificently during the third quarter as he scored eight points that included 2 free throws, a two-pointer, and a three-pointer. On the other side, Gionet also had a great third quarter of his own as he scored seven points, which included three two-pointers and a free throw.
With 2:33 left to go in the third quarter, Wilcher made a big three-point shot, giving the Vikings a seven-point lead over the Wildcats. The Wildcats would respond with a three-point shot from the corner by guard Sully Janiwade.
As the clock started to wind down in the third quarter, Rainier Beach’s Nyale Robinson hit a clutch three-point shot that gave the Vikings tons of momentum going into the fourth quarter. This specific play going into the fourth quarter sparked a sense of urgency on behalf of the Wildcats as they started to foul a lot more than they did earlier in the game.
Despite the fouls and the valiant effort of West Seattle’s Bo Gionet’s nine-point fourth-quarter heroics, Rainier Beach’s Dominik Robinson and Maceo Rivers combined for 19 points in the fourth quarter as the Vikings closed out the game 63-54.
Rainier Beach’s Dominik Robinson finished the game with 19 points and 10 defensive rebounds, an assist, and a blocked shot, while teammate Maceo Rivers finished with 15 points, two assists, and two steals. The Viking’s Kaden Powers chipped in 13 points, five assists, and two steals as Rainier Beach improved to 8-5 overall (6-5 in Metro).
Head coach Mike Bethea was extremely pleased with how his team performed against the Wildcats.
“I feel really good; this was a really important game, since it was the one [we needed] to lock up home court for the first round of the playoffs,” said Bethea. “That was our goal, and now we got to start peaking and playing the right way, and everything else should take care of itself.”
Next up, Rainier Beach will host Bishop Blanchet on Tuesday, January 23, at 7:30 P.M.