Boys Hoops: District 4 2A Finals Set as Mark Morris and RA Long Set for Civil War Part 3

2/14/23

(Tumwater, WA) Tumwater was the location for the District 4 2A boys basketball semifinals on Tuesday night. Black Hills high school hosted a semifinal matchup between RA Long and Tumwater while Tumwater high school was the site for a Black Hills and Mark Morris showdown. The two winning teams would not only punch their ticket to the District Championship, but also into the regional round of the state tournament. As teams headed home after the action was over, it would be one city represented in the championship game and that city would be Longview.

RA Long 64, Tumwater 56

The EvCo league champs traveled across I-5 to take on the reigning District Champions in the RA Long Lumberjacks in the first semifinal of the night. Two teams with high powered offenses but also very good defenses went toe to toe but a slow start for the T-Birds turned out to be the difference maker as RA Long punched their ticket to the title game for a third straight season.

RA Long got off to a good start while Tumwater struggled to knock down shots early. In the 2nd quarter though, the T-Bird defense picked up the offense and limited RA Long to just 12 points in the quarter. The Lumberjacks would still have the lead at halftime 30-25.

The 3rd quarter was the difference maker. The balanced Lumberjack attack led by Cavin Holden outscored Tumwater 18-10 in the quarter to hold a 13 point lead going into the 4th. Tumwater would fight back and Andrew Collins and Luke Brewer led the way as Tumwater trimmed their deficit down to 4. An incredible shot by TraMayne Jenkins would be the turning point however and RA Long would hang on for a 64-56 win to solidify their spot in both Regionals and the District Championship.

For stats and our MVP of the game, check out the videos at the bottom of this article.

Mark Morris 79, Black Hills 45

The other semifinal got off to a very fast start. Mark Morris would struggle in the opening minutes while Black Hills got off to a steady start which gave the Wolves an 8-3 early lead. That was when Braydon Olson got going. The Monarch junior scored 11 points in the first quarter and as he got going so did Kobe Parlin. Those two combined for 20 of the 23 points Mark Morris scored in the opening quarter. Black Hills answered and hung around with Harrison Pilon scoring eight in the opening quarter and it was just 23-16 after a high scoring first quarter.

Then Mark Morris took the game over. Olson continued his incredible performance as well as Kobe Parlin. Rebounding was dominated by Mark Morris and while the Monarchs shooting stayed hot, the Wolves slowed down. The Olson-Parlin duo had 36 points in the first half while a six point quarter for Black Hills had them at just 22 points at halftime. Altogether, it would be a 44-22 lead for the Monarchs at the break.

The 2nd half was more of the same for the Monarchs. The offense was just too much to slow down for Black Hills and they could never rediscover the offense that they had in the first quarter. A three at the buzzer in the 3rd quarter by Braydon Olson set things up for Mark Morris to get a running clock in the 4th and the Monarchs earned a 79-45 win and a berth into Regionals and a rematch with their crosstown rivals in the District Championship.

Our MVP for Mark Morris was Braydon Olson who finished with 32 points with 7 rebounds, 4 steals and 4 assists. He was the one that helped Mark Morris get out of their early funk and propel them to a strong semifinal win.

Scoring

Black Hills: Pilon 11, Nysted 8, Johnson 6, Beck 6, Rongen 5, Ellison 4, Shepler 3, Stallings 2

Mark Morris: Olson 32, Pilon 23, Gray 10, Dietz 6, Morrow 6, Wygant 3, West 1

Highlight playlists for both games are below as well as the postgame show for RA Long and Tumwater

The District Championship will be on Friday at Hudson’s Bay HS at 8pm between RA Long and Mark Morris. You can stream the game via N2 Media. Black Hills will play Ridgefield and Tumwater will take on Woodland on Thursday at Mark Morris for the final two spots in Regionals from the District.