By Dom Skene

The Road To The Dome raged Tuesday night as Shorecrest defended their home court against Stadium in a 3A Regional Playoff Game. With the winner advancing to play in Tacoma next week and the loser being eliminated, every person in the gym from both schools left all their energy in the gym. In the end, the Scots pulled off a nail-biter of a victory over the Tigers 48-45.

The biggest storyline in WA high school basketball over Presidents’ Day weekend fueled the anticipation of this matchup. Stadium Captains Ne’Quan Brown, Baaroc Rivers and Kellen O’Halloran all sat in the principal's office at Stadium High in Tacoma Tuesday morning, suspended for the win-or-go-home game- due to a fight in their previous game against Todd Beamer on Friday that they didn’t engage in. This WIAA decision proved highly controversial, and to the glee of the two seniors and sophomore, was finally reversed after community and city-wide outcry. Fortunately, they all got to play, but their high school careers still came to a bittersweet end.

The pregame vibe was positive but intense as ever, as both sides were happy to see each team put their best foot forward and leave no doubt. “I’m glad that the Stadium boys got to play, we wanted the full team. We’ll see what happens tonight! Good game, both teams,” Paul Baumann, father of Shorecrest star Parker exclaimed minutes before tipoff.

Both teams came for blood out of the gates, with tense defense marking the beginning of each half. The game’s first bucket didn’t drop til 3 full minutes had passed, and the first quarter ended slow with both teams in the single digits. Parker Baumann was the first player to get going with back-to-back threes as the Shorecrest offense ran through their star to a 1st Period lead. Stadium struggled offensively and couldn’t get anything to fall, as offensive leader Ne’Quan Brown was doubled and hammered by the Scots interior zone defense.

Things finally heated up in the second quarter as Stadium started to cook offensively.

Shorecrest continued to force turnovers, jumping passing lanes for steals and dominating their defensive glass. However, the lead narrowed as the Scots brought off their lengthy paint protector Darek Usitalo for the first time to a loud ovation, and Brown rested to close the half as well. The Tigers’ defense settled in to close the half, but still couldn’t fend off all the fast break pushes from Baumann.

The score stood 29-20 coming out of halftime, and the 2nd half began with no score for the first 3 minutes as well. Stadium still couldn’t catch a break as they kept missing shots and Brown was met by half their team as soon as he touched the ball. But the Tigers had no quit, as they kept it together while watching their deficit grow from 29-20 to 35-20 with 3:23 to go. Rivers kept looking for steals and created fastbreak chances, and finally found O’Halloran for a corner three that Brown quickly followed by sinking two foul shots to cut the deficit to 36-25. Their defense got tighter, and Brown finally sank a 3, followed by several turnovers and a Rivers mid-range. Just as they were pulling away, Shorecrest let Stadium right back in it with a 10-1 run, and their lead had shrunk to 36-30.

The fourth quarter began with two new scorers in Keaine Silimon of the Scots and Donovan Gill of the Tigers. Each hit crucial buckets, with Gill sparking the comeback and Silimon quashing its momentum. Fouls led to timeouts, in which fans and cheerleaders screamed and competed against each other, and the gym was jumping with just 3 minutes left to play in the losing team’s season, both desperately looking to keep their STATE dreams alive and avoid a fateful end to the season.

With just 48.4 to play, Stadium had fought back to a one-possession game and had the ball. They made a final push- but the Scots defense clamped up and Adarrius Hilliard pulled off the crucial steal before being fouled to put a dagger in their chances. However, he missed his shot to ice the game and the Tigers had one more prayer. They couldn’t get the ball to go in, and time finally expired, sending Shorecrest to the Dome and ending a saga that included the hard-fought season, game and legal battle for Stadium.

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Parker Baumann led the game in scoring with 21 points and provided the physical and mental leadership his team needed to fend off a gut-wrenching comeback. “We started off really good in the first half, but in the second half Stadium came out to play really hard, and they were more disciplined at the start. But the 4th quarter came down to it, and that’s where we really gotta lock in, and I feel like we were the more disciplined team today. We’ve been trying to become more of a brotherhood and do that.”

Shorecrest takes on Gig Harbor February 25 at 8:00 p.m in the Tacoma Community College gym. This will be the final round of regionals and function as a play-in for the STATE Playoffs at the Tacoma Dome.