OKLAHOMA CITY – West Side Christian’s varsity boys advanced to the championship game of the Heartland Christian Athletic Association’s 2A State Tournament on Saturday but fell short to Trinity Christian 71-49.
The Warriors finished the season with an 18-3 record.
“I think the hardest part about this game was knowing either way it went, this would be my last game with this group all together,” said West Side coach Randall Miller. “This has been one of the most fun years to coach. Just their approach has just made it fun to be around every day. I know sometimes off-season can seem like a grind, but it was fun every day.”
The game was close throughout. Trinity Christian (Texarkana) took an eight-point lead into the fourth quarter and would spread it out and pull away in the end.
Trinity led 15-14 after one quarter. At half, the lead was 33-26 before West Side scored the first eight points of the second half to grab a 34-33 advantage. Trinity regained a 48-40 lead going into the final quarter.
“They are a pressure-based running team. They get the majority of their points in transition. They’re going to try to turn you over and they’re going to play pressure, fullcourt man and not help very much,” Miller said. “Basically, you’ve got to either go all the way to the basket or you’ve got to try to pull it out and run something. Our goal was to get there and kind of shot fake, get them in the air and try to slow the game down by getting to the free throw line.”
The Warriors ended up converting 16-of-22 free throw attempts.
“We weren’t able to finish at a high-enough level around the rim,” said Miller. “They’re very athletic with lots of shot blockers. We just weren’t able to finish enough at the rim.”
Anderson Colley scored 16 points to pace the Warriors. Zackley Pearson added 12 and Spencer McNabb scored 11.
“Honestly, the season these guys had, coming into the year, losing a lot of scoring from last year and a lot of rim protection, we knew we’d have to play really, really hard and really smart to win games. That’s tough to sustain every single game through the course of a year but they did that,” said Miller. “They were really consistent all year, not just with their effort but with their focus level of executing the game plan, doing things like that to give us opportunities to win. It’s definitely one of the most consistently hard working and consistently focused groups that we’ve had.”
West Side will graduate Pearson, Garrett Williamson and Chase King this year.
“We’re losing three seniors and they all contributed a ton to what we’re doing, just fantastic leadership from that group of guys,” said Miller.