SPOKANE — The Mossyrock boys basketball team needed every second of its Round of 12 matchup against Summit Classical Christian to advance in the 1B state tournament on Wednesday, Feb. 28. But in the quarterfinals against top-seeded Lummi Nation, the Vikings put forth a dominant performance with a 59-43 win on Thursday, Feb. 29.
With the victory, the seventh-seeded Vikings head to the semifinals for the first time since 2016 when they finished second place in the 2B tournament.
Mossyrock only trailed briefly in the first quarter as Lummi Nation took an early 7-6 lead with under five minutes left. Easton Kolb, who did not play in the Vikings’ win on Wednesday, gave them a nice lift with a strong defensive effort in the opening quarter, and Zack Munoz scored five to give Mossyrock a 15-9 lead through one.
In the second, the Vikings held the Blackhawks to just 10 points, and Munoz outscored Lummi Nation on his own with nine second-quarter points. The key to the impressive quarter, according to Mossyrock head coach Tom Kelly, was on the defensive end.
“We took their guards out of the game, so our game plan worked in the first half,” Kelly said.
The top-seeded Blackhawks found life out of halftime with a 10-2 run to pull within seven, but the resilient Vikes responded to every run in the third. Kolb and Munoz each delivered a triple — with Munoz’s coming from the foul stripe — to maintain a nine-point lead entering the final quarter.
To open the fourth, Kolb and Munoz each drilled a 3-pointer to balloon the margin to 15. Their defensive dominance continued in the final quarter as Lummi Nation was held scoreless for the first five minutes. The Vikings forced 25 Blackhawks turnovers in the game and constrained them to 39.0% shooting from the field in the 59-43 win.
Munoz finished with a game-high 31 points, while Kolb added 14. The duo combined to make all six of Mossyrock’s triples in the victory.
“This means a lot. Coming back from 15 in yesterday’s game says a lot about our team. They never say die, and they’re never down,” Kelly said. “The first three minutes of the third quarter weren’t good, but we finished the job.”
The Vikings advance to the semifinals on Friday against fourth-seed DeSales at 3:45 p.m. The winner will punch their ticket to the finals on Saturday at 7 p.m., while the loser heads to the third-place game on Saturday at 11:15 a.m.
