Class 2A tournament: King's wins opener with big 2nd half

YAKIMA — King's responded to a halftime lecture and beat Ridgefield 40-29 at the Yakima SunDome Wednesday in the first round of the Class 2A boys basketball state tournament.

The fifth-ranked Knights (21-3) from Shoreline trailed 19-18 at halftime.

"I told them we were playing very poorly offensively, but we should still be able to play defense," King's coach Marv Morris said of his halftime talk.

Ridgefield's Troy Bleth, who scored 14 in the first half, made only one field goal the rest of the way before fouling out with 19 points.

"They had a very hard time with our defense in the second half," Morris said of the unranked Spudders (14-10).

Charlie Enquist, a 6-foot-9 junior, hit 9 of 15 shots and had 19 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks for King's.

"We've got a lot of kids who have never been here before," Morris added. "But now they've got one game under their belt, and we should be fine now."

King's faces Nooksack Valley in the quarterfinals at 5:30 p.m. today. The Knights beat the Pioneers 43-34 in the district tournament last week.

Other games

Cashmere 46, Steilacoom 43

Patrick Cloakey's basket with 4:50 remaining broke a tie and gave No. 6 Cashmere (22-3) the lead for good. Steilacoom (17-9) missed a three-pointer at the buzzer. Michael Miller scored 22 for Cashmere. Greg Ford led the Sentinels with 14.

Grandview 54, Lakeside (Nine Mile Falls) 49, OT

C.J. Lopez hit a tying three-pointer with a three-pointer with 13 seconds left in regulation, then scored five points of his 15 points in overtime as the Greyhounds (21-4) edged the Eagles (15-8).

Hockinson 69, Connell 49

The No. 7 Hawks (20-4) from Brush Prairie made a tournament-record 32 free throws in the school's first state-tourney victory. Keith Moilanen scored 17 for the Hawks, who made 10 steals. Tyler Hawkins scored 15 and Spencer Hadley had 14 for Connell (11-15).

Nooksack Valley 41, Forks 36

Dan Skillman scored 13 for the No. 9 Pioneers (20-7) from Everson against the Spartans (19-5).

Lynden Christian 55, Hoquiam 35

Kyle Coston and Greg Burgers each scored 19 as the top-ranked Lyncs (22-2) cruised past Hoquiam (20-4). Coston, a 6-8 senior who also had seven rebounds, hit 4 of 6 three-point attempts.

East Valley (Yakima) 45, Riverside 40

The Red Devils (15-9) edged the Rams (15-10) from Chattaroy to advance to the quarterfinals against the winner of Wednesday's late game between Vashon and Chelan.