MOUNT VERNON — Neah Bay didn’t win a Tri-District basketball championship over the weekend at Mount Vernon Christian School.
Both the boys and girls teams wanted one, for sure, but winning a Tri-District title isn’t their priority.
The Red Devils’ two coaches reminded their respective teams of that after Saturday’s games.
“I told them: our goal is not to come here to come and win the championship, it’s to go to state and get ourselves in position to accomplish what we want to accomplish,” girls coach Tony McCaulley said Sunday afternoon.
The Neah Bay girls placed third at Tri-District, finishing the tournament with a 59-48 win over host Mount Vernon Christian.
Next up for the Red Devils (18-1) is a regionals matchup against Bickleton (11-8) this Saturday at 2 p.m. at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma.
The fourth-ranked Neah Bay boys finished second, falling to top-ranked Lummi 58-56 in the Tri-District championship game Saturday night.
The Red Devils will play Three Rivers Christian at regionals with a state tournament berth on the line this Saturday at 4 p.m. at Mount Tahoma High School.
It was the third year in a row that the Neah Bay boys have lost by two points or less in the Tri-District championship game.
The Red Devils have gone on to win second-place and third-place state trophies after the previous twoTri-District losses, so not much was on the line Saturday.
“Actually, just bragging rights,” Neah Bay boys coach Stan Claplanhoo said Sunday.
In fact, last season, the Red Devils defeated Tulalip Heritage at state after losing to the Hawks in the Tri-District championship.
“That’s what I told kids in locker room: Look what happened last year, we went to the state tournament and took care of them,” Claplanhoo said.
“It’s a whole different game in Spokane.”
Neah Bay (16-3) wouldn’t mind if a similar scenario played out this at state this year.
Playing much better Saturday than in last month’s 75-49 loss to Lummi (24-0) in Bellingham, the Red Devils matched the Blackhawks possession for possession in a game that was tight and intense from the start to the finish.
“It came down to the last possession,” Claplanhoo said.
“Not much fast breaking, because both teams were paying good defense.
“Lummi played a good game. They’re strong, they’re tall. Man, we match up so evenly with them. It was a lot of fun.”
Claplanhoo seemed split three ways Sunday: bummed to lose to Lummi, pumped to have been part of such a good game, and excited about the potential of another showdown in the next few weeks with their top-ranked rival.
“Couple shots go here, couple shot go there, we win the game,” Claplanhoo said. “But the kids played hard.
“It can go either way next time we meet. We’re hoping we’re on opposing sides of the bracket so we can maybe meet in the finals.
“Lummi should have a good shot, depending on the draw. Hopefully we don’t have to beat each other out early, that would suck.”
Abraham Venske led the Red Devils with 14 points, 14 rebounds and two blocks. Ryan Moss added 12 points and five boards, Kenrick Doherty Jr. had 11 points and John Reamer finished with 10 points and seven rebounds.
Neah Bay and Three Rivers Christian (18-3) have two common opponents this season.
Neah Bay defeated Mount Rainier Lutheran 106-77 in December, while the Eagles lost to Mount Rainier Lutheran 69-54, also in December.
The Red Devils defeated Taholah twice this season, 89-78 and 95-64.
Three Rivers Christian split two games with Taholah, winning 62-55 last month and losing 79-53 in the District 4 tournament last week.
Claplanhoo said the he’ll warn his team about taking the Eagles lightly.
“We’ve just got to come out, do what they’ve got to do,” he said.
“From here on out, we’ve only got five games left to do what our goal is.”
Lummi 58, Neah Bay 56
Neah Bay 17 14 12 13— 56
Lummi 17 12 17 12— 58
Individual scoring
Neah Bay (58)
Venske 14, Munyagi 5, Reamer 10, McGimpsey 2, Claplanhoo 2, Doherty 11, Moss 12, Buttram.
Lummi (56)
Williams 5, Roberts 6, Jones 4, T. Lane 23, K. Lane 20, James, Lawrence.
Girls Game
Neah Bay 59, Mount Vernon Christian 48
MOUNT VERNON — Now McCaulley has to track down information about the Bickleton Pirates.
To do so, he will try to tap into some of his contacts from the football season.
“I know the AD down in Lyle-Wishram from football,” McCaulley, also the Neah Bay football coach, said.
“I’ll be trying to get some film from him, if he has any.”
The WIAA’s decision to not release the regional pairings made it difficult for teams to scout potential opponents.
And at the Class 1B level, there aren’t many avenues with which to acquire scouting reports once the opponent is known.
“If I would have known about it, I would have sent someone to tape the game,” McCaulley said of Bickleton’s 60-31 win over Taholah in a District 4/5 glue game Saturday.
McCaulley feels the fourth-ranked Red Devils are in a good spot coming out of the Tri-District tournament, in which they suffered their first loss of the season, a 59-50 setback to eventual district champion Crosspoint on Thursday.
“Overall, I was super happy with our last game against Mount Vernon Christian,” McCaulley said of Saturday’s game. “We finally played to our capabilities.
“I thought we played really good. Faye [Chartraw] had a good game, Kaela [Tyler] had a good game. The defense really played well.
“We came with a lot more energy. The defense played a lot better than it had. We played good defense in Port Angeles [on Tuesday], but I think we played even better than that.”
Chartraw scored 26 points grabbed 14 rebounds in the win, while Tyler racked up 16 points and 11 rebounds.
McCaulley hopes the loss to Crosspoint in the semifinals was an eye-opener to the Red Devils.
“I think it was kind of even a good thing for us,” he said.
“I think we were a little over-confident, maybe, being undefeated, not having had a lot of close games.
“It showed us that there are a lot of good teams out there, we need to play our best.”
McCaulley also made note of the strength of the top four teams at the Tri-District tournament: Neah Bay, Crosspoint, Mount Vernon Christian and Evergreen Lutheran.
“I didn’t expect to play them in the [third-, fourth-place] round,” McCaulley said of the quality of Mount Vernon Christian.
“I think all four of us are really good ball clubs. So it’s going to fun at the state tournament, if we can all make it.
“We might represent over there.”
Neah Bay 59, Mount Vernon Christian 48
Neah Bay 10 24 13 12— 59
Mount Vernon Christian 10 15 7 16— 48
Individual scoring
Neah Bay (59)
J. Greene 7, Hol. Greene 4, Tyler 16, McCaulley 3, Chartraw 26, Johnson 3, Doherty, Hai. Greene, Hill.
Mount Vernon Christian (48)
Anderson 6, Case 10, Whitener 4, G. Kuipers 19, Noste 9, Hood, Lervick, O. Kuipers, Lam.
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
