TACOMA聽鈥 A competitive start was washed away for the 4A No. 8 West Valley boys by a Glacier Peak avalanche.聽
The Grizzlies outscored the Rams by 27 in the middle quarters as WV's season ended with a 64-42 Friday afternoon loss a few hours after their second quarterfinal appearance in as many seasons late Thursday night.
It's a bitter end for a senior class led by Parker Hill and Parker Mills, who helped the Rams reach four straight state tournaments and ended their tenures with three consecutive district titles.聽聽
"Ultimately I think we just ran out of gas,聽 that quick turnaround from the late-night game to the 2 o'clock game," West Valley coach Tyson Whitfield said. "Give all credit to Glacier Peak, they're a tremendous program. We call them our pseudo rivals since we've played them four times in the last two years, and they've got the better of us three of those four.
"They're tough defensively, they executive their stuff at a high level, and if you don't match that, it ends up like tonight did."
West Valley beat the Grizzlies in last year's opening round before losing the rematch in the third-place game while still claiming its best finish as a 4A program. GP took the first matchup this season,聽69-64 in the SunDome Shootout, and looked again Friday like the team that won its first 22 games before a district title loss to Lake Washington, which fell to Richland in a semifinal later Friday.聽
Zachary Albright proved just as difficult to slow down in the Tacoma Dome as he did in Yakima when he led GP with 23 points, piling up a game-high 24 including 10 in the first quarter.
The Grizzlies led 15-13 at the start of the second before drilling three straight 3-point attempts during a 14-0 blitz that WV couldn't recover from.
A future WSU offensive lineman, Mills led the Rams with 12 point and seven rebounds. The CBBN player of the year was a four-time first-team all-league pick, while Hill was a key piece, hitting the game-winner in the 2024 district title game against Davis and setting West Valley's assist record聽against Bellevue in January.聽
Whitfield likes to preach to his players to leave the program better than they found it, and his two senior starters certainly did as they hand the reigns to a trio of underclassmen stars in Austin Birley, Jett Bremerman and Jrayden Whitfield.聽
"This senior class is one that can say they left the program in a better place than they found it. Four straight trips to the state tournament, three straight district titles, and we're just getting started."
WEST VALLEY聽鈥 Parker Mills 12, Hill 9, Birley 9, Whitfield 6, Bremerman 3, Evans 3, Moore 0, Valdavinos 0, Mataia 0, Rojan 0, N. Worley 0, C. Worley 0. 16-48, 7-11, 42.
GLACIER PEAK聽鈥 Zachary Albright 24, Paulos Mulugeta 14, Reed Nagel 13, Vinson 9, Kan 2, Dossman 2, Pierpoint 0, Rondeu 0, Rainey 0, Ganje 0. 26-54, 5-5, 64
West Valley=13=8=8=13=鈥=42
Glacier Peak=15=23=20=6=鈥=64
3-point goals: West Valley 3-11 (Whitfield 2-5, Hill 1-2); Glacier Peak 7-21 (Vinson 3-7, Mulugeta 4-6). Rebounds: West Valley 29 (Mills 7, Birley 5); Glacier Peak 33 (Albright 130, Nagel 6). Assists: West Valley 7 (Birley 3); Glacier Peak 16 (Nagel 9). Steals: West Valley 5; Glacier Peak 9 (Kan 4). Turnovers: West Valley 12; Glacier Peak 9. Fouls: West Valley 5; Glacier Peak 10. Fouled out: None.
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