Prep Basketball | KingCo 4A: Tony Wroten has finishing touch in 59-54 Garfield win

KENMORE — He had one hand on the door to the visitors locker room when Garfield sophomore Tony Wroten felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and found a young Inglemoor fan with a pen in his hand.

"Can I have your autograph?"

After the enrollment saga that postponed the start of his sophomore season, Wroten — just 15 — had become one of the most recognizable faces in Seattle basketball this fall even before he played a game in Washington. In a 59-54 Garfield victory at Inglemoor Tuesday night, one of the state's top players had his first chance.

"I've been waiting a long time for this," Wroten said.

After Inglemoor took a 45-44 fourth-quarter lead, Wroten owned the final five minutes.

"I'm not going to allow us to lose this game — I told my teammates that," Wroten said.

During a 10-point Garfield run, Wroten either scored or assisted on every basket. On two fast breaks, he fed teammate and cousin DeAndre Taylor with no-look passes for easy layups. And to finish the run, he found Taylor with a behind-the-back pass across the lane.

"That's just chemistry," Taylor said. "That's just us playing together so long. I know I have to keep my eyes on him because the ball will come at you any time."

Wroten finished with 20 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and four steals. Taylor had 13 points, all in the second half.

But until the final run, Garfield (4-1 overall, 3-0 KingCo 4A) struggled to pull away from the Vikings (5-3, 2-2). Inglemoor opened the fourth quarter with an 8-0 run to take the lead from the top-ranked Bulldogs with 5:13 to play. With the outside shooting of Benji Bryant and Adam McElwee and Todd Campbell's inside play, Inglemoor tested Garfield's defense.

But when the Bulldogs went to a full-court press, Inglemoor went flat for about 3 ½ minutes, when Wroten and Garfield pulled away.

"Our commitment to defense is going to get us to where we want to be," Garfield coach Ed Haskins said. "Which is playing in the [Tacoma] Dome, on March 7, at about 7 o'clock."

That would be just about tipoff time of the Class 4A state championship game.

Tom Wyrwich: 206-515-5653 or twyrwich@seattletimes.com