SPOKANE, Wash. 鈥 Sunnyside Christian head coach Dean Wagenaar has been a part of numerous title games with the Knights.
Experienced or not, the stress induced during a title run never really goes away.
鈥淏oy, that journey is hard. It鈥檚 hard to win championships,鈥 Wagenaar bluntly stated. 鈥淎fter the game, I told the guys I was going to use a smartphone to contact Southwest Airlines, because I wanted to get away for awhile.鈥
By now, he鈥檚 probably glad he didn鈥檛. Sunnyside Christian won its fifth Class 1B state and ninth overall championship Saturday at the Spokane Arena, as the No. 2-seeded Knights held off a No. 4-seeded Lummi Nation 47-40.
And while Wagenaar has now won seven, the players haven鈥檛, which makes 2017鈥檚 state title pretty special.
鈥淕rowing up, that鈥檚 all we watched,鈥 junior forward Cade Bosma said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been our dream our whole life. We dreamed of being in this moment. Wanting to win one of these is all we鈥檝e thought about our whole lives.鈥
As Wagenaar alluded to, winning state championships isn鈥檛 an effortless process. And this one definitely wasn鈥檛 easy.
Lummi Nation led for most of first half, but the Knights never let the Blackhawks pull away. A three-point play from Bosma and a layup from Lane Marsh tied the game 19 heading into half.
Midway through the third quarter, the Knights made their move.
After Lummi Nation opened the second half on a 5-0 run, the Knights regrouped and eventually took a 33-31 lead after three straight buckets inside the paint from Bosma.
Building the lead took patience from the Knights, something that didn鈥檛 come easy against Lummi.
鈥淲e kept with it,鈥 Bosma said. 鈥淲hen it wasn鈥檛 going our way, we kept with it and fighting the whole time.鈥
After claiming the lead, it was a matter of maintaining it, something the Knights proved capable of.
In the fourth quarter, Lucas Dykstra leaked out in transition to score a layup and Lane Marsh converted a pair of layups in a six-point swing that put Sunnyside Christian up 39-33 with 4:54 remaining.
Lummi Nation鈥檚 star wing Trazil Lane (22.1 points per game) muscled his way inside for a layup, but Chance Marsh drilled a corner 3-pointer to extend the lead to seven. Bosma was then fouled and made 1 of 2 free throws and a Lane Marsh steal led to a Chance Marsh layup to bring the lead to 10.
The Knights hung on from there.
An unsung hero for Sunnyside Christian was Dykstra. The sophomore guard had eight of his 13 points in the first half to keep the Knights in the game, making the Blackhawks pay for not guarding him or boxing him out on offensive rebounds (he had three by halftime).
Dykstra鈥檚 hustle eventually tired out the Blackhawks鈥 defense and opened up lanes for other people.
Another key was limiting Trazil, who was held to tournament lows in points (15) and rebounds (10).
The plan to stop him in the fourth quarter, where he scored two points and was 1-of-5 from the field, was to put Luke Wagenaar on him after trying a matchup zone for most of the game.
鈥淔inally I just said 鈥楲uke, go face guard him. You鈥檙e tall,鈥欌 coach Wagenaar said. 鈥淎nd Luke did a good job in the last part of the game. He was tired. He was struggling to get good looks.鈥
Bosma posted a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds, Chance Marsh collected 10 points and four assists and Lane Marsh added 10 points for Sunnyside Christian.
LUMMI NATION 鈥 Borsey 3, C. Ravey 8, R. Borsey 6, Lane Trazil 15, Washington 6, Hillaire 0, Mahle 0, Toby 0, Jojola 0, Diggs 2.
SUNNYSIDE CHRISTIAN 鈥 Cade Bosma 12, Chance Marsh 10, Lucas Dykstra 13, Faber 0, Wagenaar 2, Lane Marsh 10, K. Marsh 0.
Lummi Nation 12 7 12 9 鈥 40
Sunnyside Christian 8 11 14 14 鈥 47
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