Jacob Cofie, Eastside Catholic survive to reach WIAA 3A boys basketball finals
TACOMA, Wash. — Eastside Catholic High School basketball will get the chance to make program history this weekend in the Tacoma Dome.
Leading much of the way in their semifinals contest against No. 6 seed Mount Spokane, the No. 2 seed Crusaders held off a late fourth quarter rally from the Wildcats, including a potential buzzer-beating shot, to post a 55-53 victory Friday night in the Class 3A semifinals.
They advance to play 3A Metro rival Rainier Beach in Saturday night’s WIAA title game.
“I don’t even know what to say, man,” Crusaders forward Jacob Cofie said of the game’s final sequence. “I’m just happy to be in the championship. Proud of my team. We played great, man. We played great.”
Cofie, a Virginia signee, gave Eastside Catholic the lead on the game’s first possession, and the Crusaders (22-6) never trailed in the first half to take a 29-26 lead into the break.
There were eight lead changes in the third quarter, and it wasn’t until a Yabi Aklog basket with less than a minute to go in the third that Eastside Catholic stayed ahead for good.
The Crusaders’ lead was at seven on a Cofie dunk late in the fourth quarter. But then the Wildcats closed in - with four free throws and a Lafferty putback inside the final two minutes to cut the lead to 55-53 with 3.7 seconds to go.
Mount Spokane caused a turnover one second later, and Lafferty got a contested 3-point shot up at the buzzer, but it fell short.
Cofie scored a team-high 20 points and added nine rebounds, while Aklog had a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds.
Lafferty led all scorers with 22 points and had seven rebounds and three steals. Bode Gardner added 14 points for the Wildcats.
Eastside Catholic will now play in a state championship game for the second time in school history. Before Friday, the first and only time the Crusaders had reached a title game was 2014, when they took second in the 3A bracket, losing to Rainier Beach, 47-45, in the final.
They’ll play the No. 10 seed Vikings (17-10) — who upset another Metro League program in No. 4 seed O’Dea earlier Friday in the semifinals — for a championship again Saturday.
The Crusaders and Vikings have already had three meetings this winter, and the Crusaders lead the season series, 2-1.
Eastside Catholic won the first league meeting in January, 61-54, while Rainier Beach won the second later that month, 70-61. The Crusaders then bested the Vikings, 63-49, in the third-place game in the league tournament early last month.
“They’re a great team,” Cofie said. “I can’t wait to play them.”
The championship game is set for 7 p.m. Saturday.
Mount Spokane (21-5) plays O’Dea (19-10) in the third-fifth place game at 11:15 a.m.
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No. 10 Rainier Beach 59, No. 4 O’Dea 46
Rainier Beach and O’Dea had already met four times this season, and the two 3A Metro League rivals split those games.
The Vikings won the first league meeting in December by three, and the Fighting Irish the second by 31. O’Dea posted another rout, by 21, in the league tournament semifinals in early February. The Vikings answered with a four-point upset win in the 3A District 2 semifinals the next week.
This time, it was Rainier Beach that ran away with a double-digit victory in the most pivotal meeting between the two programs this winter, which sends the Vikings on to Saturday’s state title game.
“We know they’re a very disciplined team, so just playing hard, playing fast and just taking them out of their comfort zone,” guard Kaden Powers said of how the Vikings approached this fifth meeting.
Rainier Beach never trailed in the final three quarters, led by double digits most of the second half, and extended the lead to as many as 22 in the fourth. Meanwhile, the Vikings’ defense limited O’Dea to a season-low 46 points.
Powers led all scorers with 28, while Maceo Rivers added 14 for the Vikings.
Malcolm Clark paced O’Dea with 16 points and nine rebounds.
Following 10 losses in the regular season and league and district tournaments, the Vikings are now 4-0 in the state playoffs, and have a chance to win their first title since 2016 on Saturday night.
“I’m just proud of my team, man,” Powers said. “We came a long way. A lot of people didn’t see us coming this far, so I’m just proud of my team. We’re just having a really good moment with each other right now.”
