JOYCE — The biggest game in a decade for Crescent boys basketball was but a mere tune-up for the Neah Bay Red Devils.
Playing at the sort of breakneck pace they are known for, the Red Devils beat the Loggers 51-32 Tuesday night to clinch their fourth North Olympic League title in five years.
Neah Bay avenged its lone league loss of the season with the victory, a 39-37 setback to Crescent at home, while also ending Crescent’s bid for its first league title since 1994.
Not that it was too big of a deal to the Red Devils.
“I’ve seen Crescent cut the nets down [after winning the NOL]. I’ve seen Quilcene cut the nets down,” Neah Bay coach Mike Lawrence said.
“For Neah Bay . . . it’s there, but we have higher goals.”
So despite running away with Wednesday night’s game with 12-0 run fueled by seven Nick Ward points to begin the fourth quarter, Lawrence and company weren’t satisfied.
They want to be playing better by the time their Class 1B Tri-District game against Tulalip rolls around Feb. 12 in Joyce.
“We had an opportunity a couple of times to roll them over, and I think we let our guard down,” Lawrence said.
“That’s kind of our M.O., I guess. I said at the beginning of the season we need to get close to playing for 32 minutes. You can’t be the best for 25 minutes, you need to be the best for 32 or 31 minutes.”
Neah Bay’s Drexler Doherty had 16 points, five assists and five rebounds.
Senior teammate Nick Ward dropped in 10 points and forward Robert Moss added eight points and nine rebounds for the Red Devils (5-1 in league, 16-4 overall).
Yet Neah Bay couldn’t shake a game Loggers (3-2, 5-11) team until the fourth quarter.
It was at that point that Neah Bay had Crescent playing its up-tempo game, forcing the Loggers into six turnovers with its full-court press while holding them to just two points.
“When we’re boxing out, where we’re outletting and running and getting easy buckets, we’re playing at our best,” Lawrence said. “It’s the same with pressing, when we’re going at it and they get into it and the frenzy starts, we can make that work, too.
“Once it takes off, it’s like a snowball.”
Crescent, led by senior forward Josh Anderson’s 11 points and four rebounds and Bay Tsolmon’s eight points, tried to fight that all night.
At times, like a 13-4 run to end the third quarter down 39-30, the Loggers were able to do so.
But a couple of big Red Devil runs, including a 10-0 surge in the second quarter and the 12-0 roll at the start of the fourth, ended up being their undoing.
“They fought hard,” said Crescent coach Darren Heaward. “Neah Bay is tough. I have to hand it to them. They play good ball, so we knew it was going to be tough.
“If we could hang with them into that fourth quarter, I knew we had a shot.
“We kind of did that, but we just broke down a couple of times.”
Crescent hit just 12-of-51 from the floor on the game, while Neah Bay sank 19-of-61 shots.
Tunovers also hurt the Loggers, as they gave the ball away 25 times against the Red Devils’ pressure. Neah Bay had 17 turnovers.
“We played decent enough,” Doherty said. “We stepped it up when we needed to and played good defense at the end.
“I think that’s what won it for us, because they started coming back. Then we turned our defense back on and I think that’s what separated the game at the end.”
Neah Bay will have nine days to savor the victory, with a Class 1B Tri-District game against Tulalip lurking Feb. 12 at Crescent.
Crescent will close out its NOL season at Clallam Bay on Friday before taking on Muckleshoot Tribal School next Tuesday in a sub-district loser-out game.
“I think we were really, really the underdogs, obviously,” Heaward said, “but our guys played hard and came together as a team.
“It was nice to be able to have our kids in that position [to play for an NOL crown]. I’m just proud of them.”
Neah Bay 51, Crescent 32
Neah Bay 13 16 10 12 — 51
Crescent 10 7 13 2 — 32
Individual Scoring
Neah Bay (51)
T. Pascua 7, Ward 10, Moss 8, Doherty 16, Dulik 6, Buttram 4.
Crescent (32)
Heaward 3, Tsolmon 8, Anderson 11, Trerise 4, Williams 6.
Girls Basketball Neah Bay 73, Crescent 20
JOYCE — The Red Devils (6-0, 18-0) put the finishing touches on their second straight perfect NOL season with a thorough dismantling of the Loggers.
Neah Bay had 10 players in the scorer’s book, led by Ardis Pullen’s 14 points and Erica Fonzi’s 13, while Crescent (0-5, 3-12) had just one.
Of course, it takes more than a 20-point effort from Kylie Mitts to beat these Red Devils. There’s a reason, after all, Neah Bay has won five straight NOL titles.
“I don’t think the girls take it as a given [that they will win the NOL],” Neah Bay coach Lisa Halttunen said.
“You always have to come with that mindset that you have to be ready to play. You can’t just come out and expect to win.
“They are pretty good about having that kind of attitude . . . ready to work hard.”
Neah Bay’s dominance was on full display Tuesday night as well, with its press limiting Crescent to just 13 points in the first half as it jumped out to a 41-13 lead.
The Red Devils cruised from there to win their 15th straight NOL game. It’s a streak that dates all the way back to the 2007-08 season and includes a 6-0 mark in 2008-09.
“I think they just play well together,” Halttunen said. “There’s plenty of talented girls, and they work together well as a team.”
Neah Bay will open Tri-District play at Crescent High School on Feb. 12.
Crescent will close out its season on Friday night in Clallam Bay.
Neah Bay 73, Crescent 20
Neah Bay 30 11 14 18 — 73
Crescent 2 12 3 3 — 20
Individual Scoring
Neah Bay (73)
Kallappa 4, Pullen 14, Winck 8, Thompson 5, Tyler 3, Fonzi 13, Greene 6, Lawrence 4, Moss 8, Allen 8.
Crescent (20)
Mitts 20.