The Sehome boys basketball team rallied twice but couldn’t pull off a third and final comeback, falling to visiting Holy Cross Regional Secondary, 67-63, in an international non-league game Thursday night, Dec. 4.
“The game was great for our guys, to put them in pressure situations,” said Sehome coach Brad Jackson, whose team dropped to 1-1. “And they responded.”
The Mariners certainly did.
After falling behind by seven in the first quarter to the hot-shooting Crusaders, Sehome rallied to tie it just before the half. Then after a back-and-forth third quarter, the Mariners fell behind by six in the fourth quarter, only to tie it again at 62 on Quincy Tanovan’s 3-pointer with 1:12 left.
Unfortunately for the Mariners, Holy Cross also responded to the pressure in the final minute.
A Sehome technical foul resulted in two made Holy Cross free throws with 40 seconds left, an off-balance Crusader drive somehow went in with 10 seconds to go, and one last free throw with 4.9 seconds left iced the game for the team from Surrey, B.C.
“A game like this is a good one for us,” said Jackson. “It shows us things we can work on. But we had a great effort, and we fought. They had some guys who could really shoot, but we hit some big shots too.”
Both teams were deadly from outside — the Crusaders hit 11 3-pointers and the Mariners sank 10 from beyond the arc.
Sehome senior Klay Jackson had four 3-pointers and finished with 14 points, and senior Xavier Kelley and Tanovan added a pair of 3s each and had 10 and 8 points, respectively, with Kelley also pulling down 10 rebounds. Senior point guard Nolan Wright quarterbacked the efficient Sehome offense with 10 assists and added 8 points.
But the Mariners’ biggest weapon was, in fact, their biggest player — 6-foot-2 post Cole Turrell. The senior with an NFL lineman’s body and an NBA guard’s soft touch, punished the Crusaders inside to the tune of 20 points.
It was his three-point play with just under two minutes left that sparked the final rally that came up just short. The only thing that he didn’t do was hit the first 3-pointer of his career because a shot he made from 25 feet with 5.8 seconds left came just after an official’s whistle.
When asked what the early-season game taught the team, Turrell said, “We learned we can still fight even when we’re down a good amount.”
And Tuesday’s loss, which came to the 10th-ranked team in British Columbia’s largest high school classification, didn’t dampen his expectations.
“Our expectation is to go to state,” said Turrell, who missed much of last season with a football injury. “Taking first or second (in the district tournament) … that’s our goal.”
While never pleased with a loss, Sehome’s coach wasn’t frustrated with his team’s play, especially since the Mariners were literally short-handed with two of their taller players unavailable Tuesday night. Still, Jackson knows to reach their goal, the Mariners will need the same gutsy effort every game.
“In this league, every night is a fight,” he said of the Northwest Conference.
Sehome is in action again on Saturday night, when the Mariners host Lummi Nation in another non-league contest.
(NOTE: Thank you to Tyler Anderson of Whatcom Preps for the extra stats.)
Holy Cross 67, Sehome 63
Holy Cross 20 16 17 14—67
Sehome 13 20 14 16—63
Holy Cross: Dalupang 1, Ok. Urefe 21, Purewal, Unabia-Davenport 4, Mirkovich 13, McKenzie, Brown 6, Tomyk 2, Juan 19.
Sehome: Wright 8, Jackson 14, Tanovan 8, Rusk 3, Stauber, Kelley 10, Simmons, Turrell 20.
