Hopefully, the Meridian Trojans fare better on their second trip east of the Cascades.
The #2 seed Royal Knights pulled away in the second quarter and defeated the Trojans, 65-47, in a 1A boys regional contest, Friday night at Ellensburg High School.
The loss means the Trojans will play in a state tournament, loser out game, Wednesday in the Yakima SunDome, at 5:30pm. Their opponent will be the winner between #15 Overlake and #10 Riverside. They will play on Saturday, at 12:00pm, at West Valley-Spokane High School.
The Knights, well known for their 1A football championships, seemed to have the right mix of football mastery and basketball proficiency. The Knights dug in on defense against Trojan sharp-shooting seniors, Talon Jenkins and Jaeger Fyfe. At the other end, they displayed the ability to make the extra pass and spread the scoring to eight different players.
The first points of the second quarter came on two free throws by Fyfe that the 5:42 mark that tied the score at 15-15. From there, the Knights slowly pulled away using a combination of offensive rebounds and Trojan turnovers. A 14-6 run by the Knights left the Trojans trailing 29-21 at halftime.
The Knights compounded things by scoring the first nine points of the third quarter to take a 38-21 lead. Sophomore point guard Pierce Brzozowski stopped the run with a 3-pointer, then added a free throw after a steal.
Trailing 40-29, junior guard Damion Hayes came off the Trojans bench and nailed a 3-point shot before he could work up a sweat. Jenkins followed that with two free throws, then added another on the Trojans next possession to cut the Knights lead to 44-35 with 20 seconds left in the third quarter.
But what may have been the shot of the game came from Knights sophomore Manny Ruvalcaba, who hit along 3-pointer before the buzzer to push the lead back to 12.
But that was only the beginning.
The Knights big run started there, and didn’t end until they had outscored the Trojans 17-4 to take a 61-38 lead.
Compounding matters for the Trojans was the foul trouble to Fyfe and senior post, James Hedahl, who fouled out within 15 seconds of each other in the middle of the fourth quarter.
The Knights were coming off of a district championship win over Zillah in which they trailed 31-4 but ended up winning by 14 points in overtime. They advance to the state quarterfinals on Thursday, in the SunDome. They will play at 9:00pm against a team to be determined on Wednesday.
The Trojans will need a win on Wednesday to continue in the state tournament. They were led by the 20 points of Jenkins. Fyfe finished with 11. Brzozowski scored nine, all in the second half.
The Knights had eight players in the scoring column with Ezra Jenks and Grant Wardenaar leading with 13 points each.
~ Ted House
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