Reigning Champs Curtis Prevails Over Conks

Reigning Champs Curtis Prevails Over Conks
By Steven Dion

The battle for third and fourth place in the final regular season standings of the South Puget Sound League featured the defending 4A champions in Curtis and a dark horse Kentwood squad. Tim Kelly’s Vikings are mostly a new-look squad compared to the victorious team of last year with some familiar faces. However, Curtis is still a formidable contender to make a run in the 4A tournament. The Conks have firepower primarily through freshman guard Darius Lubom. Blake Solomon’s Kentwood team is able to contend with top teams now, but is built for a bright future with their young talent.

Curtis established their desire to execute on both sides of the court and were able to shoot an efficient 64% from the field in the first quarter while limiting the opposition to 40% field goals. The Viking defense effectively forced several turnovers by pressuring the Conks to dribble through traffic. Kentwood seemed to struggle finding continuity offensively, but managed to put up enough points to keep the game within reach needing a strong second half. Lubom’s ten points in the first two frames helped to cut a big KHS deficit to 13 before the break.

It appeared Curtis had the Conks on the ropes early in the second half as the lead continued to grow early in the third, but the Viks seemingly took their collective foot off the pedal slightly. Free throws began to rim out and sloppy offensive play gave Kentwood a window to climb back into the contest. The Conks cut down the Curtis lead to single digits, but there was not enough clock for KHS to reach the summit. At the end of regulation, the 2013 4A champs came away with a 64-52 win, good for a third place finish in the South Puget Sound League. The Viks have their work cut out for them if their season is to wrap up at the Tacoma Dome again come March.

Top Performers:
Kentwood
Darius Lubom – 14 points (5/8 FG’s, 3/5 FT’s)

Curtis
Aushanti Potts-Woods – 19 points (8/15 FG’s, 3/3 FT’s)