Bellevue Advances to State Title Game With 52-40 Win

For the first three quarters, the boys basketball team looked like a team searching for an identity.

For the second night in a row, the Wolverines found that identity when it mattered most.

Nate Sikma scored 18 points and Bellevue used a stifling defensive effort in the fourth quarter to advance to the 3A state title game, beating Glacier Peak High School 52-40 on Friday night in the semifinal round of the Hardwood Classic at the Tacoma Dome.

Glacier Peak took a 36-35 lead into the fourth quarter, but Evian Richard shut down the Grizzlies' Jack Bonner and Bellevue held Glacier Peak to just four points in the final eight minutes. Bonner led Glacier Peak with 16 points, but scored just two in the fourth quarter.

"Evian stepped up on Bonner, [who] was having a a really good game,” Sikma said of the late defensive effort. “We got out on their threes and they didn’t shoot as well.”

It wasn’t pretty for Bellevue, which struggled with consistency for the second straight game. Bellevue failed to put together a full quarter of offensive consistency until the decisive fourth quarter. Kendrick Van Ackeren and Sikma combined for 13 points in the fourth quarter, as Bellevue pulled away.

"I don’t know if that’s a good thing,” Sikma, who also pulled down 14 rebounds, said of his teams’ recent slow starts and strong finishes. “But we’ll take it for the win.”

Bellevue started the game on a 8-0 run, but Glacier Peak outscored the Wolverines 30-14 over the next 14:05 to open up a 30-22 lead early in the third quarter. Bellevue responded with a 12-0 run to start the third quarter before finishing the game on a 17-4 run to cap the win.

"Basketball’s a game of runs,” Bellevue head coach Chris O’Connor said. “We just tell [the players]…stick to the game plan, stick together and the fourth quarter we’ll turn it up another notch and do whatever we can to win the game.”

For the Wolverines, the win was their sixth straight. Bellevue has not lost since falling to Mercer Island in the KingCo 3A championship game three weeks ago. Sikma said that loss has acted as motivation for the Wolverines recent winning streak.

"We were in the locker room and we could hear the excitement from the Mercer Island fans,” Sikma said. “We kind of all looked at each other and were like ‘that’s what we want.’”

Bellevue will play Lakes, an earlier winner against Kamiakin, at 7pm on Saturday at the Tacoma Dome for the 3A state title. O’Connor said his team will come prepared with a state championship on their minds. 

“We’ll be prepared,” O’Connor said. “We’ll tell the guys to really enjoy it, enjoy the moment, enjoy every minute of it, enjoy playing together for the next 32 minutes out there.”