The Eastside Catholic boys basketball team left no doubt in the second half with its stout defense.
That meant the fourth-seeded and often-overshadowed would improbably be crowned Metro League champions.
Jacob Cofie supplied 24 points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots as the Crusaders finished off a surprise postseason run to fend off Rainier Beach 62-56 in the Metro League boys title game on Friday night at Seattle Pacific University.
“Man, I feel like we were the underdog, so practice week we took extra time to go over our stuff and see what’s best for us to run in the game,” Cofie said after his squad delivered the school’s first Metro title in boys basketball. “So, we had the game plan every night.”
Both teams pulled off upsets to reach the title contest. No. 10 Eastside Catholic had the biggest stunner, knocking off previously unbeaten Garfield, the top-ranked team in Class 3A, 64-56 in the semifinals Wednesday.
Rainier Beach outlasted No. 4 O’Dea 49-48 in the other semifinal.
Eastside Catholic (15-8) trailed 32-25 at halftime, but the Crusaders rallied to outscore the Vikings (12-8) 38-24 in the second half.
The Crusaders led by as many as 15 points in the second half, owning a 59-44 lead with 2:12 to play on Kayden Greene’s corner three-pointer. They held on to seal the crown by sinking 8 of 10 free throws in the final 3:47.
“It was our first Metro championship and man we had to win it for all the greats in front of us,” said Cofie, who has made great strides in his play the past two seasons. “Shoot, guys like Matisse Thybulle, Nolan Hickman, Shane Nowell and all those guys. We had to win it for them.”
Miles Gurske led Rainier Beach with 22 points and Ryan Mpouli added 19.
Crusaders’ guard Ishe Kanhukamwe led a furious third-quarter rally with eight of his 10 points in the period. EC outscored Beach 19-8 in the third and turned that into a 34-12 second-half run.
“We got whole team involved,” Cofie said of the second half. “Everyone was playing.”
Cofie, a 6-foot-9 forward ranked the state’s No. 2 player in the Class of 2024 by 247Sports.com, tallied 17 of the Crusaders’ first 23 points and Eastside Catholic led 23-16 before Rainier Beach closed the half on a 16-2 run over the final 6:13.
“Jacob has been so great, but sometimes I don’t think he knows how good he is,” EC coach Brent Merritt said. “We have to stay on him. An example was the last game and we’re playing Garfield and it’s a tight game. He had been having his way.
“We call a timeout and I told him we’re going to you in the post, and he says, ‘Coach, let’s go to Ishe one time and come back to me?’ I had to cuss him. I said, ‘No, we’re going to you every time.’”
EC played the second half under protest Merritt confirmed, contending the official book omitted two points from their first-half total.
“We were going to play hard anyway [in the second half],” Merritt said. “But that was extra motivation.”