1/27/17
Capital 84, Central Kitsap 54
(Olympia, WA) The Capital Cougars have been on a roll and they came into this game with Central Kitsap knowing it would give them the new South Sound Conference 1st ever Boys Basketball Championship and secure the #1 seed into the District Tournament. Central Kitsap came looking for pay-back and looking to keep their title hopes alive as they started the night 7-4 a game behind 2nd place Timberline and 3 behind 10-1 Capital each with 3 games to play.
Capital has racked up that impressive record with a total team effort and relying on different players stepping at different times. TJ Mickelson was the name many thought would certainly help the Cougars but many would believe TJ would be the focus of the offense. As the season has unfolded TJ is certainly a weapon but with Chris Penner and Matt Mickelson they have several options from the outside along with the bigs inside led by Chris Schnellman, Luke Layton, Grant Erickson and Tommy Richardson Capital truly has a multi level attack.
All that being said this night belonged to TJ and it was apparent just 5 seconds into the game when he took the tip-off tip from Schnellman and broke free for an easy lay-up for a quick 2-0 lead. From there, Capital would roll up a 23-9 lead after the 1st quarter and push it to a 47-19 lead at the break. The final 3 points of the half was TJ hitting a fall away 3 with time expiring. That would be his 4th 3-ball of the game and he finished with 19 1st half points.
Central Kitsap would put together their best 8 minutes in the 3rd quarter and actually outscored Capital 22-18 but with the huge 1st half deficit it did not get them back into the game. Dylan .McConnell led Central Kitsap with a strong showing and was the only one to finish in double digits with 16. Zion Archer chimed in with 9 off the bench and Dominic Telemaque finished with 7.
Despite outscoring Capital they didn’t slow down TJ who kept finding the bottom of the hoop from distance. TJ would finish with 39 points which was not a school record but the 10 3-point shots were shattering the old record of 6. Add to it 2 more that could have counted, one the shot clock went off prematurely and officials blew the play dead just a moment prior to TJ launching the shot that was good and another one hit off the back iron and bounced high straight up and fell straight down through the hoop but the ball touched part of the apparatus the backboard hangs from and was waved off as out of bounds.
The win handed Capital their 1st league title since 2008 and the 4th in school history. Capital improves to 11-1 in play while CK falls to 7-5. Our Tommy Lowe of Greene Realty Players of the Game went to Capital’s TJ Mickelson and Central Kitsap’s Dylan McConnell. Our ProActive Physical Therapy Play of the Game went to the opening tip-off with Chris Schnellman tipping it to TJ Mickelson who laid it in for the opening bucket.
Scoring
Capital: TJ Mickelson 39, Chris Penner 12, Chris Schnellman 10, Luke Layton 5, Matt Mickelson 4, Jack Collard 4, Carson Bertelli 3, Tommy Richardson 3, Brett Stock 2, Grant Erickson 2
Central Kitsap: Dylan McConnell 16, Zion Archer 9, Dominic Telemague 7, Elijah McGee 6, RJ Secrest 4, Kendall Washington 4, Ja’Quirious Conley 3, Austin McMinds 2, Jayden Upshaw 2
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