Trojans stun Knights; CK goes down to the wire

Maybe nobody wants to the fourth and final boys basketball playoff berth in the Narrows League Bridge Division.

Tied with two games left, Central Kitsap, Bremerton and North Kitsap all lost on Wednesday, Feb. 6.

Olympic, which had not won a league game, finally got one when Geoff Kelstrup’s 3-pointer at the buzzer lifted the Trojans to a 70-69 victory over the Knights in Bremerton.

Central Kitsap stumbled 64-48 against South Kitsap in Silverdale and North Kitsap was hammered by Gig Harbor, 71-41, in Poulsbo.

So, this was the deal going into the last day of the regular season on Friday, Feb. 8. Bremerton (4-7) played at Central Kitsap (4-7), while North Kitsap (4-7) visited Olympic (1-10).

If North loses, the Central Kitsap-Bremerton winner will be the Bridge Division’s No. 4 team. If North wins, the Vikings will play the CK-Bremerton survivor at Olympic High on Monday, Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. to determine the No. 4 spot.

Whoever emerges as Bridge No. 4 will play the fifth-place team in the Bay Division on Wednesday, Feb. 13 at a neutral site. The winner of that games meets Bay No. 4 at Bremerton High on Saturday, Feb. 16, for the Narrows League’s seventh and final seed to the West Central/Southwest District Tournament.

Gig Harbor, South Kitsap and Port Angeles are locked in a battle for the top three seeds. The No. 1 and 2 seeds play their Bay counterparts at St. Martin’s College in Lacey on Friday, Feb. 15, to determine the No. 1, 2, 3 and 4 seeds to district. The No. 3 Bridge meets the No. 3 Bay on Saturday, Feb. 16, for the No. 5 and 6 seeds to district.

Olympic 70, at Bremerton 69 — For Olympic, playing the role of spoiler is OK, but the Trojans would rather be in the playoff hunt.

No way did coach Robert Polk believe Olympic would be fighting to break a 10-game losing streak, which is what the Trojans did on Wednesday night.

“We anticipated being very competitive, at least compete for the fourth spot,” Polk said. “Luck didn’t go our way. We didn’t play very well at times, but we battled every night. When you work hard, you expect to get good results, but it just didn’t happen.”

The Trojans ended up playing for those life lessons that are so important, Polk said.

“Persistence can pay off if you get through the adversity,” Polk said. “You’ve just got to keep after it. That’s more important than anything.”

There was a feeling of relief, not to mention elation, after beating Bremerton.

The Trojans deserved to win, and they finally did.

“It was nice to get the monkey off our back,” Polk said. “We played really well. The second quarter was an example. We were 11-for-12 from the field. We shot really well. We rebounded very well.”

The Trojans carried a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter.

“But in true Olympic High fashion, we squandered the lead,” Polk said. “We had poor shot selection and the shots weren’t going in. We had turnovers and they led to easy breakaway baskets for Bremerton.”

Before Olympic knew it, they were down 69-67 with 11 seconds left.

“Fortunately, the ball ended up in the right guy’s hands for the right shot,” Polk said, referring to senior sharpshooter Geoff Kelstrup, who knocked in a 3-pointer from about 4-feet behind the 3-point line in front of Olympic’s bench.

Kelstrup finished with 20 points. Sophomore Brendan Campbell, who’s exceeded expectations by averaging 11 points and eight rebounds, led the Trojans with 21 points. Senior guard Chris Soterakoupolus, who turned out to be a solid starting guard after opening the season on the bench, tossed in 17.

Undersized Joel Ackley managed to hold his own defensively and on the boards with most of the league’s bigger players, Polk said.

South Kitsap 64, Central Kitsap 48 — Central outplayed South Kitsap for a quarter, but the defensive-minded Wolves clamped down in the second quarter, holding the Cougars to just five points while opening a 29-22 halftime edge.

“They got us to play a little faster tempo than we needed,” CK coach Al Gleich said. “We needed to slow it down more.”

South’s inside size wore down the Cougars over the course of the game. Jake Beitinger and Adam Bennett, 6-8 and 6-6 sophomores, combined for 24 points and 15 rebounds while controlling the middle.

“South’s a tough matchup because of their size inside and they can still shoot the three,” Gleich said. “And they’re deep. They keep bringing guys off the bench.”

The Wolves, aggressive at both ends, scored the first eight points of the third quarter and Central never got closer than 10 the rest of the game.

Marcus McKay, who turned an ankle early but returned to play, led Central with nine points. Chad Larson had seven points and six rebounds.

“We continued to play hard,” Gleich said. “I was happy with the effort. Brad Mader was hustling all over the floor.”

King's West faces loser-out games

The plot thickened considerably for the King’s West basketball teams after both lost Sea-Tac League Tournament games on Thursday, Feb. 7.

The Warriors returned to Chief Leschi School in Puyallup today, Feb. 9 with hopes of extending their seasons.

The KW boys (12-10) had a seven-game winning streak snapped, losing 58-48 to Cedar Park. They’ll try to rebound today against Evergreen Lutheran at 3:30 p.m. The winner earns the Sea-Tac’s No. 3 seed and advances to the Tri-District Tournament, which opens Friday, Feb. 15. The loser is done for the season.

Ben Norton popped in 26 points for Cedar Park, which used a triangle-and-two defense to limit guards Peder Rauen and Brandin Jones to a combined nine points. The KW guards average 13 points each.

Blake Anderson led the Warriors with 21 points and 11 rebounds.

The KW girls picked a bad day for a poor shooting night while falling 49-38, also against Cedar Park. The Warriors shot just 27 percent from the field.

King’s West faces Seattle Lutheran today at 1:45 p.m. in a loser-out, winner-to-district game. The Warriors beat Seattle Lutheran by 26 points earlier in the season.

NARROWS LEAGUE GIRLS

Olympic 54, Bremerton 44 — The Trojans (3-7 league, 7-12) got a season-high 11 rebounds from Brooke Sparling and 15 points from Tiffany Jess as they overcame a slow start to complete a season sweep of the Knights on Wednesday, Feb. 6.

Stormy Peterson added 11 points for the Trojans, who ended their season at North Kitsap on Friday, Feb. 8.

MarCia Abrams scored 15 for the Knights (1-0, 1-18), who led 21-7 after the first quarter.

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