Boys Basketball | O'Dea slips past Beach

It has been a week of losses for the Rainier Beach Vikings, Class 3A's top-ranked team.

On Thursday at practice, 6-foot-6, 290-pound starting post Emeka Iweka went down with an Achilles tendon tear that will sideline the University of Washington football recruit for the rest of the basketball season.

Friday night, third-ranked O'Dea showed up and completed its splendid week by beating the Vikings 83-80 as 6-7 senior post Josh Scott took advantage of Iweka's absence to score a career-high 26 points.

Scott, considered the most improved player on the Irish squad by coach Phil Lumpkin, had 17 points by halftime of the Metro League crossover.

O'Dea used a 13-0 run over 5 minutes, 23 seconds of the third quarter to build a 57-44 lead and then held off Beach, which fell to 7-4 overall, 6-1 in league. Beach's three previous losses were to national powers, including DeMatha of Hyattsville, Md., at a holiday tournament in Houston.

O'Dea (10-1, 7-0) made 20 of 25 free-throw attempts, including 12 of 15 in the final quarter. Beach hit 6 of 8 for the night.

"We have to get used to life without Emeka," said Beach coach Mike Bethea, who said Beach's style will switch to more uptempo.

Iweka had been averaging 11.4 points and 11 rebounds.

Chris Banchero scored 19, Kelly Edwards 16 and Ellis Pressley-Whitman 12 for O'Dea. Beach had three players with more than 20 points — Reggie Moore with 29, DeAngelo Jones with 22 and Michael Ladd with 21. Moore and Jones each hit three-pointers in the final 12 seconds for the game's final points.

Beach, which was coming off a 10-day break without a game because of weather postponements, will have to regroup quickly because the Vikings play at Bainbridge on Tuesday.

The win was the second quality outing of the week for O'Dea, which romped past 2A power Lynden 53-31 on Monday at Edmundson Pavilion at the King Holiday Hoopfest.