The Meridian boys basketball team rebounded from a difficult loss by, well, by rebounding as the Trojans defeated Overlake, 65-52, in a loser-out consolation game at the Class 1A state tournament Wednesday evening in the Yakima SunDome.
Meridian’s victory improved its record to 18-8 and, more importantly, moved the seventh-seeded Trojans into the quarterfinals, where they will take on No.1-ranked Annie Wright on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
“We’re excited for tomorrow night,” said Meridian coach Shane Stacy. “Everybody will be rooting for us.”
Meridian was coming off an 18-point loss on Saturday to second seed Royal in the regional round and neither Stacy nor the team took it well. A big reason for the loss was being outrebounded by the physical Knights.
That was not the case Wednesday against the 15th-seeded Owls, who came in with a 15-9 record and were the lowest seed remaining. The Trojans won the rebounding war, 37-27, and had 21 offensive rebounds compared to just two against Royal.
“Defense and rebounding,” said Meridian senior Jaeger Fyfe, who led the Trojans with 25 points. “Last game, we didn’t do well (rebounding). Tonight, it was huge for us. It gave us three or four more opportunities (per possession).”
Meridian never trailed, extending its lead to 11 at the half and as much as 24 early in the fourth quarter before letting its second team see action.
In addition to dominating the boards, Meridian’s defense forced 19 turnovers.
On offense, the Trojans took advantage of Overlake’s focus on Meridian’s leading scorer, senior Talon Jenkins, to get its other big scorers — Jaeger and senior James Hedahl — more opportunities.
While Jenkins only took six shots, Fyfe had 24 attempts and Hedahl 10. Fyfe proved unstoppable driving to the hoop for most of his 25 points, and Hedahl hit six of his shots for 14 points. Hedahl and Jenkins also had 7 rebounds each to lead Meridian.
“Talon had their best defender on him, so the question was who’s going to defend Jaeger and they didn’t have anyone,” said Stacy. “And James had a great game. We wanted to get him going.”
Jenkins did finish with 9 points as nine different Trojans got in the scoring column.
Fyfe said the Trojans didn’t have any trouble getting up for Overlake after Saturday’s defeat, pointing to a mid-season loss to Nooksack Valley that taught them a lesson.
“We had a tough loss to Nooksack, and we learned to forget about the past and just keep working,” he said.
And that will be especially true when facing the heavily favored Gators on Thursday.
“We’re going to prove a point,” said Fyfe, who also earned the game’s sportsmanship medallion. “If we win, we win, and if we lose, we lose. But we’ll be ready to play our hardest.”
Meridian 65, Overlake 52
Overlake 10 12 11 19—52
Meridian 13 20 23 9—65
Overlake: Brandon Douvia 16, Ethan Ho 4, Andy Shen 3, Jacobi Murphy 6, Andrew Lou, Abem Berga, Hank Davidson, Derek Li 5, Xander Gregush 13, Alioune Cisse, Rohan Butani, Carter Douvia 5.
Meridian: Talon Jenkins 9, Damion Hayes 2, Jaeger Fyfe 25, Canyon James 2, Brock Haugen, Matthew Blankenburg 5, Daniel Larsen 2, Trey Alexander 4, Gabe Galbraith, Pierce Brzozowski 2, James Hedahl 14, Josiah Harris.
CLASS 1A BOYS STATE TOURNAMENT
At Yakima SunDome
Wednesday, March 5
Seton Catholic 68, Cashmere 61 (loser out)
Meridian 65, Overlake 52 (loser out)
King’s 69, Bellevue Christian 67 (loser out)
Chelan 69, Bear Creek 51 (loser out)
Thursday, March 6
#6 Seton Catholic (19-6) vs. #4 Zillah (20-4), 3:45 p.m.
#7 Meridian (18-8) vs. #1 Annie Wright (21-2), 5:30 p.m.
#5 King’s (19-5) vs. #3 Lynden Christian (22-2), 7:15 p.m.
#9 Chelan (23-5) vs. #2 Royal (24-1), 9 p.m.
Friday, March 7
Consolation game, 12:15 p.m. (loser out)
Consolation game, 2 p.m. (loser out)
Semifinal, 7:15 p.m.
Semifinal, 9 p.m.
Saturday, March 8
Consolation game, 9:30 a.m. (winner fourth, loser sixth)
Consolation final, 1 p.m. (winner third, loser fifth)
Championship game, 5 p.m. (winner first, loser second)
