YAKIMA — The formula for Chimacum was simple — Steven Gray scores 30 or more points and the Cowboys win.
For the first two games of the Class 2A state boys basketball tournament in the Yakima SunDome, it worked to perfection.
Unfortunately for the Cowboys, two games was enough for everyone else this side of the Cascade Mountains to catch on, too.
Gray scored just nine points in Saturday night’s third-sixth-place game and Chimacum played its worst game of the tournament in a tired 69-46 loss to Grandview.
“He had to work pretty hard for anything he got,” Grandview head coach Scott Parrish said of Gray after his team’s victory.
Grandview fell into the consolation bracket by losing to Quincy 31-23 on Friday night in the lowest scoring game of the tournament.
Chimacum missed its shot at the state title game by losing 39-32 to Medical Lake on Friday.
On Saturday, both teams were playing their fourth game in four days, a huge change from two or three a week during the regular season.
Grandview responded with 10 3-pointers while Chimacum’s legs seemed to melt into the warm Yakima night.
“It’s tough playing four games in four days against top competition in the state,” Gray said afterward. “My legs were gone.”