Game recaps, highlights from the 2023 King Showcase high school basketball tournament

There will be eight high school basketball games played at the 2023 King Showcase on Monday at the ShoWare Center in Kent.

The annual event honoring Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. features five boys basketball games and three girls basketball games this year, and includes teams at the Class 4A, 3A and 2A levels from the South Sound and beyond.

Follow along for live updates throughout the day.

Puyallup 65, Kentlake 44

When Isaiah Sonntag started burying shots from the outside, the Puyallup offense started to click overall.

Sonntag made three straight 3-pointers over the first one minute, 42 seconds of the second quarter, turning a one-point lead into a double-digit advantage in the Vikings 65-44 victory over Kentlake in the first game of the King Showcase on Monday morning.

“Lately it’s been other guys getting the shots,” Sonntag said. “I think I prepared better for this game.”

Sonntag finished with six makes from beyond the arc on his way to a game-high 22 points. He was named the player of the game for the first of the eight contests at the ShoWare Center.

“It’s fun to play in this arena,” Sonntag said. “It’s not something a lot of people get to do.”

Puyallup scored the first five points against the Falcons only to watch Kentlake run off an 11-2 spurt to take an 11-7 lead on Cannon Wilton’s 3-pointer with 4:35 to go in the first quarter. Sonntag’s first 3-pointer, with 1:42 left in the quarter, gave Puyallup the lead back, 12-11, and the Vikings never trailed again.

The Vikings eeked out a 16-15 advantage after one quarter, extended that lead to 33-23 by the half and never looked back. Wilton scored seven of his team-high nine points for Kentlake in the first quarter.

Rogers 54, Mercer Island 51

The Rogers Rams didn’t take their first lead until almost two minutes into the fourth quarter on Monday.

Rogers gave that advantage back briefly. But then Dylan Gilderhus scored five quick points inside the final two-and-a-half minutes of the game and the Rams completed a big comeback to earn a 54-51 victory over Mercer Island in Game 2 of the King Showcase.

Trailing 46-45 after Jackson Bredy made one of two free throws for the Islanders with 2:43 left in the game, Gilderhus found his way to the right baseline on a drive. The sophomore floated a ball on a high arc as he drifted past the backboard that swished through the net.

That put Rogers up, 47-46, with 2:17 remaining. One possession later, Gilderhus came off a screen and buried a 3-pointer for a 50-46 advantage.

Syver Lanctot answered with his fourth 3-pointer of the game for Mercer Island, part of a game-high 14 points, but by the time Amanna Anusiem capped his team-high 13 points with two free throws for the Rams with 23 seconds left, Rogers still maintained its advantage.

“We really want to go to the (Tacoma) Dome,” Anusiem said. “And this place is like the Dome. We’ve got to get used to it.”

It took the Rams a little time to get used to things Monday. Mercer Island bolted to a 16-6 lead after one quarter and maintained that double-digit advantage over the first half of the second quarter, thanks largely to two of Lanctot’s 3-pointers.

Rogers closed the gap to three, 27-24, by the half. Still, the Islanders led it by seven, 39-32, with 2:53 to go in the third quarter. Gilderhus and Kyle Reeves each scored to start the fourth quarter, though, with the Reeves basket giving Rogers its first lead of the game, 43-42, with 6:15 left to play.

Bellarmine Prep 49, Eastlake 45

Taylor Teeple owned the fourth quarter on Monday afternoon at the ShoWare Center. The Bellarmine Prep senior scored 11 of her game-high 17 points, and the Lions overcame two substantial deficits to pull out a 49-45 victory over Eastlake at the King Showcase.

Trailing 40-31 with 6 minutes, 40 seconds to play in the game, Teeple led a swift 10-0 run from Bellarmine to retake the lead, 41-40, with 4:03 left. Teeple scored seven of the 10 points in the run, while Kiara Stone added the rest with a long 3-pointer.

“We just wanted to win this game,” Teeple said. “We have a saying, ‘No losses in January,’ so all of us just put our heads into it and we came out with the win.”

Teeple made two free throws for the lead at 4:03, part of a personal eight-point run for Bellarmine, which led 45-44 on the last basket of that run, a layup with 2:09 remaining. Stone added 15 points for the winners, including a steal and breakaway layup to put it away for good with nine seconds left.

The Lions fell into their biggest hole, 38-29, and again at 40-31. Bellarmine led this one 29-27 with 3:24 to go in the third quarter — a Stone basket. But the Wolves went on an 13-2 run culminating with one of two Natalia Sefair-Lopez free throws with 6:40 left.

Ava Schmidt scored six of her team-high 15 points during the spurt for Eastlake. Schmidt filled the stat sheet, blocking five shots and grabbing more than 10 rebounds in the contest. But the senior post managed only three points over the final 2:53 — her team’s only points down the stretch — as Bellarmine came back to win.

“We had a big talk about adversity, and how when it hits us, staying with it as a team,” said Teeple, who was named player of the game.

Lynden 52, North Kitsap 50

The light went on, the buzzer sounded and the ball just sat there, momentarily perched on the rim at the ShoWare Center in Kent. The pause left a second of silence before the basketball turned over and fell through the net.

Treyson Smiley, who had just put back the driving miss from Coston Parcher, stood there. His Lynden teammates erupted as the Lions pulled out a 52-50 victory over North Kitsap at the King Showcase.

Smiley’s basket capped a late come-from-behind effort from the top-ranked 2A team in the state, which trailed by five points, 41-36, entering the final eight minutes of the contest. It was Smiley’s only two points of the fourth quarter, and just his second basket of the game.

But it lifted the Lions to their 12th win of the season against just a single loss. The Vikings fell to 10-4 overall. Lynden began its comeback thanks to the efforts of Anthony Canales, who scored all eight of his points in the fourth quarter.

A Canales 3-pointer with five minutes, 44 seconds to play cut the Lions deficit to one, 43-42. Brant Heppner followed with a rare four-point play, making a 3-pointer out of the left corner, getting fouled, and sinking the free throw to put Lynden back in front, 46-45.

It stayed within one point until the buzzer. Harry Davies made one of two free throws to tie the game at 48-48 with 2:13 to play for North Kitsap, part of his game-high 22 points to go with seven rebounds.

Cade Orness then put the Vikings up, 50-48, with a short shot inside with 1:42 left. Canales answered to tie the game again with 1:15 left.

After a turnover, Lynden had a final chance to avert overtime. The Lions ran the final 16 seconds down, Parcher drove to the basket and had the ball bounce off the left side of the rim where Smiley awaited to grab his game-leading 10th rebound.

Smiley pushed the ball back up off the backboard where it bounced once then hung there as the buzzer went off before finally falling through.

Woodinville 52, Sumner 42

There was little semblance of the “rematch” evident when the Falcons and Spartans took the floor at ShoWare Center on Monday afternoon. The uniforms bore the same colors as those worn back in March, when these teams met to decide the 4A girls state championship.

But so many of the faces were different, this one had a completely different feel, even if the final result turned out the same — a Woodinville victory, this time 52-42.

“I came into this one with a fresh eye,” Falcons junior post Jaecy Eggers said.

Eggers and a few of her teammates were a part of the Woodinville state title run that included a 65-63 title game win over the Spartans. She had a bigger impact on Monday than she did that Saturday night in the Tacoma Dome.

Eggers, senior Brooke Beresford and junior Lyla Kahrimanovic controlled the game inside in Kent on Monday. The trio pulled down a combined 44 rebounds, scored 34 points and challenged everything Sumner did when going to the rim.

Woodinville got out to a 24-15 lead at the half, built that advantage to as much as 19 points, 42-23, late in the third quarter, and made a 10-2 Sumner rally over the final 2:42 of the game a moot point.

“Most teams by this time in the year have found their path,” Sumner coach Katie Hyppa said. “We’re playing as many as four freshmen. Last year, if our shots weren’t falling, we still knew how we were going to play. There is an adjustment period.”

Tahoma 54, Sumner 38

The Bears used a huge second quarter to pull away from the Spartans and coasted to a victory at the King Showcase at the ShoWare Center on Monday evening.

Sumner made only four field goals in the first half, scored five points in each of the first and second quarters, and trailed 30-10 by halftime. The Spartans shot 4-of-28 in those first 16 minutes (14.3 percent), improving slightly in the second half by going 11-of-28 (39.3 percent) to finish at 26.8 percent from the field overall.

Making a few shots actually allowed the Spartans to outscore Tahoma in both the third (16-15) and fourth quarters (12-9).

Dalton Brown led all scorers for Tahoma with 21 points to go with eight rebounds. Logan McGough grabbed a game-high 13 boards for the Bears. Javion McLaughlin led Sumner with 15 points.

Kentridge 60, Mount Si 55

The Chargers kept their cool and made the plays down the stretch to fend off the big rally from top-ranked Mount Si at the King Showcase on Monday night. In microcosm, the effort expended by forward Dorian Thomas on Wildcats big man Miles Heide showed the struggle.

Thomas drew four fouls in less than two and a half quarters against Heide, who scored 14 points, grabbed 16 rebounds and blocked three shots for Mount Si. But Thomas held the 6-foot-9 center below his season average in scoring.

“I play strong, so the fouls come and go,” Thomas said. “I’m a bigger kid. I just had to keep my head. Miles is a great player, but I can stick with the great players.”

As the Chargers’ 10-point lead withered away coming down the stretch in the fourth quarter, Kentridge showed some cracks in the armor. But they caught the emotions.

“We got right to the edge,” Kentridge coach Dave Jamison said. “We’ve been working on it. That’s beat us in the past.”

Leading by just two, 58-56, with 23 seconds left, Elijah Cain extended the lead to four with the last two of his 15 points for Kentridge. Moments later, Jalon Blackwell stepped to the line and calmly made two free throws to clinch the upset with 6.7 seconds remaining.

“Just shoot your shot,” Blackwell said. “Don’t worry about the noise. The game was already over.”

“They came out and punched us in the mouth, and kept punching,” Mount Si coach Jason Griffiths said. “They are a really good team. The better team won tonight.”

Kentwood 47, Bethel 45

The Conquerors erased an 11-point lead from early in the third quarter, coming all the way back from 33-22 down to take a 45-41 lead with just over two minutes to play. The Bison tied it at 45-45 on a Moriah Sears layup with 1:43 to play.

But Jessica Ajayi made a short turnaround in the lane with 40 seconds left that proved to be the game-winner for Kentwood. Bethel had a chance at the buzzer, but Aaliyah Clemons desperation 3-pointer bounced off the right of the rim as the buzzer sounded.

Ajayi finished with a team-high 16 points and added six rebounds for the Conquerors. Lei Lime-Laupati scored 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds for Bethel to lead everybody in both categories.