KingCo 3A boys basketball: Sammamish works 2 OTs for win
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BELLEVUE - Sammamish trailed Bellevue by five points and the Totems' starting center was headed to the bench after fouling out with 3 minutes, 8 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
But Sammamish Coach Travis DeCuire was smiling.
"We're going to win this game," he shouted from the bench. "Believe that."
DeCuire didn't know it would take two overtimes to beat Bellevue, 68-62. But he believed his team was in good position even after Justin Tate, the Totems' center and second-leading scorer, fouled out.
"I knew we had the momentum," DeCuire said. "I knew we had them on their heels a little bit."
Sammamish (13-9) forced four Bellevue turnovers in the final 2 minutes of the fifth-place game in the KingCo 3A boys basketball tournament at Bellevue Community College. The Totems led by two until Tate Englund's jump shot with 17 seconds left tied the score 52-52 and forced overtime.
Bellevue (11-11) scored the first five points of overtime, but Sammamish came back by holding the Wolverines scoreless in the final 2 minutes.
In the second overtime, the Totems scored the first six points, though their lead was cut to two when Bellevue's Michael Katsuhisa had a steal and layin with 47.9 seconds left. Sammamish outscored Bellevue 5-1 the rest of the game.
Both teams advance to the Sea-King 3A District tournament next week and will play loser-out games Tuesday. Sammamish will play the No. 3 team from the Seamount League at 4:45 p.m. at Mercer Island. Bellevue will play the No. 4 Metro League team at 4:45 at Kennedy.
Thaddeus Broadway led the Totems with 15 points. Rob Bishop scored 14.
Steve Regener of Bellevue had 15 points on 5-of-20 shooting. His three-point play with 2:10 left in the first overtime gave Bellevue a 57-52 lead, but he didn't score the rest of the game.
Interlake 69, Issaquah 64
Before shell-shock set in after Issaquah's 26 first-quarter points, Interlake Coach Dan Helms passed a simple message to his team.
"If they're going to score 26 points every quarter, they're going to be state champions," Helms said. "We can't get freaked out by that. We can't be rattled. We have to play our game."
Issaquah was scoreless for the first 6:46 of the second quarter and scored only 16 points in the second and third quarters of the third-place game. After Bryce Mackay's three-point play for Interlake with 2:45 left, the Saint lead was never smaller than three points. Mackay finished with 21 points.
Interlake (14-7) advanced to the double-elimination part of the Sea-King 3A District tournament and faces the Seamount No. 1 seed, Kennedy or Renton, at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday at Kennedy. Issaquah (15-6) plays a loser-out game at 4:45 p.m. Tuesday at Ingraham against the Metro No. 6 team.
Sophomore Hans Gasser had 20 points and Blake Macomber 16 for Issaquah.