Would someone remind Curtis Terry he’s only a sophomore? The 6’4 F played like a grizzled vet last night, hitting two huge 2nd half threes to propel his Curtis Vikings to a 49-41 upset over the 7th ranked Bethel Braves Friday night. CT’s efforts helps push the Vikings (10-4, 13-5) into sole possession of third place in the SPSL South, a game ahead of Federal Way. Don’t think the Viks don’t know that third place means an automatic berth to the South Puget Sound League tourney two weeks from now, while a fourth place finish means a one game playoff to simply get in to the SPSL dance. “Big win, huh,” commented Curtis head man Lindsay Bemis after knocking off the previously tied-for-first place Braves. Yeah, we think so, Coach…
When Bethel knocked off Curtis back on January 12th, the two squads combined for some serious fourth quarter scoring theatrics that absolutely left the FadeawayJ crew shook with enjoyment. Well, last night’s rematch was more like watching the Baltimore Ravens play than the St. Louis Rams; it was an absolute defensive stalemate than saw neither team break the half century mark.
Trailing 21-18 at the half, the Vikings came out on a 7-0 run to begin the second half. SR PG Carlton Weatherby, who was plagued all night by a bout with the flu, began the run when he was intentionally fouled on his way to an uncontested fastbreak layup. He drilled both the proceeding FT’s, and on the next possession Curtis Terry buried a tough 3-ball that seemed to give the Viks control. Not to be denied, Bethel’s 6’7 SR Nick Moore combated with some mad game of his own. His array of j-shots helped the Braves go on a 11-2 run of their own, catapulting them to a 34-32 lead at the end of three.
With their catalyst Weatherby under the weather physically, the Vikings responded solidly with a 12-2 run to start off the fourth quarter. Terry was the man again, knocking down another long range bomb to start the run. The sophomore was jacked after the shot, bobbing his head and throwing phantom punches in an effort to get his boys fired up. Well, they responded. Junior Kenny Hart, who relieved Weatherby at the point and played some relentless 4th quarter “D”, hit an acrobatic drive in traffic that pushed the Curtis lead to three. SR Matt Bogrand’s trey put in at six, and CB came off the bench to gracefully put up a floater that gave Curtis a 42-34 lead, pumping up the Curtis faithful and in the and in the process deflating any hopes of a Bethel comeback…game over.
Afterwards, Mr. Terry talked about how it was important to represent for his senior teammates: “I just had to step up…it was senior night for us and will had to help these guys get a W getting out of here. I just tried to play my heart out for the seniors.” He also spoke about being the team’s emotional spark plug: “I think I try to bring (energy) to the team so I can give my best effort.”
CB spoke about how tight his squad is: “We definitely got a team. Not everybody’s going to come out with their best game every night, so we come out and play together. If we do that and bring it defensively like we did, we’ll do well.”
Defense was the theme of the night, and Bogrand echoed that with his postgame thoughts: “Defense is gonna win games. When we “D” up, there’s not many teams that are going to beat us. It comes down to our defense and our rebounding, and when we do those two things, you’re not going to beat us.”
The Vikings balanced scoring attack was lead by Weatherby’s 11, followed by Terry and Bogrand, who both had ten. Nick Moore had 11 for the Braves(12-2, 13-5). Bethel scoring threat Johnny DeRoacher (17 ppg) was held to 6 points.
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