Pe Ell wears its first crown

Even at the dawn of the season, Clayton Lusk’s team was counting down the W’s until his team got another crack at a state title.

“They were like, ‘28 more wins,’ ” the Pe Ell head coach said. “The goal was to be playing late Saturday night.”

After lowering that magic win number to zero, the Trojans completed their dream through the State 2B basketball tournament at the Arena in the late Saturday affair, trumping Liberty Christian 66-41 for the school’s first championship.

“It’s crazy,” tournament MVP Hank Robinson said. “It’s all I wanted this whole year.”

And in front of what seemed to be the entire town of roughly 700, the Trojans sure played like they wanted it. Behind Robinson’s 20 points, nine rebounds and four assists, the Trojans outworked and outhustled Liberty Christian, holding an astounding 44-23 edge on the boards and scoring 13 points off LC turnovers.

“Hank was driving the bus, and the team was stepping up and came along for the ride,” Lusk said.

The Trojans grabbed control of the game coming out of the halftime break when Robinson converted an alley-oop pass to make it 32-20, part of a 21-9 Pe Ell third-quarter bulge. Pe Ell’s Tyler Ratkie made sure the Patriots never recovered.

“His nickname’s ‘The Rat’ – he’s always finding his way around the ball,” Lusk said.

True to his name, Ratkie squeezed his way into every crack in the defense, scoring nine of his 16 points in the third.

While Patriots head coach Terry Watson tipped his hat to Pe Ell, as the game started to drift away from LC, Watson said so too did his team from leading scorer Cody Brockman.

“I think we took him out of the game,” Watson said. “We didn’t take advantage of what Cody can do.”

Brockman, averaging 21 points in the tournament prior to the championship, was kept in check, scoring nine points. Jake Siefken had a team-high 11.

Trailing by 21 points entering the fourth quarter, any hopes of a Liberty Christian comeback were snuffed out by the same Trojans zone defense that proved problematic for previous foes Davenport and White Swan. Seeing the swish of his buzzer-beating 3-pointer to down White Swan in the quarterfinals was all Robinson needed to know about the Trojans’ fate this postseason.

“I knew we were destined to win,” Robinson said. “It wouldn’t have gone in if we weren’t destined to win the championship.”

Be it fate or hard-nosed effort, Lusk was pleased his team’s season culminated in a successful finish.

“I’ve got a smile on my face so big for all the work and time they put in,” he said. “(It means a lot) to pay off like this.”

Next year, the Trojans will be counting down again – only this time, to the chance to repeat as state champions.