Boys Basketball: Warriors Get Revenge, Earn No. 1 Seed To Districts With Victory Against Fife

Revenge.

It’s always a good idea in theory, but enacting the get-back feeling isn't guaranteed — unless you're the Clover Park boys basketball team.

Less than a month after falling to South Puget Sound League 2A rival Fife, the Warriors came out swinging in Fife's gym and left with a 61-47 win in the West Central basketball sub-district championship game.

Saturday night's victory means Clover Park (20-2 overall, 14-1 league) secures the No. 1 seed to the 16-team district tournament, which begins Wednesday. Fife (16-6 overall, 11-4 league) is seeded second.

Led by a lights-out scoring spree by freshmen guards Ahmaad Rorie and David Crisp, Clover Park was able to hold Fife’s leading scorer, senior forward Kevin McCrossin, to just six points – and nary a 3-pointer. Rorie scored a game-high 23 points and Crisp added another 18.

The pair’s performance garnered praise from their coach and teammates alike.

“When Ahmaad and David hit shots, we look great,” said Clover Park coach Mel Ninnis. “When they don’t, we don’t look as good.

“Your body follows your mind, and they were really dialed in and really thought about what they needed to think about … and did whatever needed to be done to be successful.”

Senior forward Tana Pritchard felt similarly.

“When they’re shooting like that, there’s nothing anybody can do against us,” he said. “(Fife) tried to run the zone and we were up there just getting the ball and then passing it back to them so they could hit the 3’s, and they did. They hit it tonight.”

But even more so than their individual performances, the freshmen were focused on the payback aspect of the victory.

“The last time we played Fife, I didn’t even make a 3 … I was ready to play my best and do whatever we had to do to beat Fife,” Crisp said. “This was our revenge game.”

“It is revenge,” Rorie added. “They were talking mess after the last game and we knew we could beat them because we beat them the first time (61-46 on Jan. 7).”

The Warriors got off to a fast start, controlling the tempo for the duration of the period. The opening points of the game were a 3-pointer by Crisp, his first of two in the quarter. Rorie added his own pair of jumpers to give Clover Park a 20-13 lead.

Things slowed down, though, in the second quarter as Clover Park outscored Fife 17-15. The effort was buoyed by a trio of 3-pointers by Crisp – two in the first 90 seconds – and five points by Pritchard, who finished the night with 11 points and six rebounds, a team-high four assists, two blocks and a steal despite playing on a sprained ankle sustained in practice Friday.

“We want to go, go, go, and they want to run back and get in the zone and plug the middle up,” Ninnis said. “You’ve got to pick your poison – either the young guys are going to be open on the outside or Tana’s going to be one-on-one in the inside.

“They choose to double and triple-team Tana, so I moved him away from the basket a bit little more tonight.”

That was fine with Pritchard, who said that he saw his role as facilitating the ball to the freshmen pair.

“I think I did that,” he said. “I had the most assists and they hit the shots.”

Trojans senior forward Jimmy Branche hit his team’s only 3-pointer before the buzzer, and Clover Park led 37-28 at halftime.

Fife outscored Clover Park 13-11 in the third quarter as senior guard Jack Murrey contributed five of his team-high 14 points to narrow the deficit, 46-40, but fell flat in the final period, posting just six points to the Warrior’s 13.

Rorie hit a soaring 3-pointer halfway through the third quarter, and another in the fourth. He finished the game with a team-high eight rebounds.

“I was just trying to penetrate and get points every way and make sure I got my teammates open looks and myself open looks so we could just win,” he said. “I wanted that No. 1 seed.”

Crisp tallied three rebounds and an assist, and junior forward Dwayne Crawford had six rebounds and three assists.

Fife's loss snapped a nine-game winning and gave Clover Park its sixth consecutive win – its last defeat having come at the hands of the Trojans on Jan. 15. The Warriors have a bye in the first round of the district tournament and will not play again until Friday at Curtis.

Clover Park – 20 17 11 13 – 61
at Fife – 13 15 13 6 – 47

Scoring summary:

Clover Park – Malcolm Brown 3, Ahmaad Rorie 23, Isom Brown 2, Dwayne Crawford 2, Marcus Sheppard 3, David Crisp 18, Tana Pritchard 11.
Fife – Jimmy Branche 9, Kevin McCrossin 6, Brock Carpenter 2, Brad Finlayson 2, Travis Hansen 2, Jack Murrey 14, Bryce Miller 12.