Facing a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter last Friday, senior Andre Coleman rallied his teammates with a speech that was received loud and clear.
“Is this what we came here for?” the Bremerton High School guard said. “We need to show some heart.”
The Knights responded by erasing an 11-point gap in the fourth quarter en route to a 70-68 win against undefeated Kingston High School at Les Eathorne Gymnasium.
Coleman scored a game-high 28 points, including seven 3-pointers to halt the Buccaneers from clinching an Olympic League title. The triumph extended the Knights’ winning streak to 10 games, informing the rest of the league that the defending champions are still a threat.
“We’re finally starting to get our credit,” Coleman said. “We won our league last year, and Kingston had a chance to clinch it on our home court, and we weren’t going to have that. They could have stayed undefeated, and that got our adrenaline pumping before we even walked out there.”
Kingston, which led by 11 in the third quarter, used its size early to overpower Bremerton as 6-foot-4 forward Sam Byers totaled 21 points for the visiting Buccaneers.
The Knights’ offense found a spark with 23 points in the final quarter. Guard Michael Lawrence scored 13 points while wingman Andrew Shadle finished with 10. The comeback victory was nothing new for Bremerton, which earned a reputation for erasing double-digit deficits this season.
“I was very proud of the boys, especially when we were down 11 and I told them not to quit,” Bremerton head coach Darren Bowden said. “In the first game against Kingston, we only played a couple of quarters. This time, we played all four.”
The Buccaneers won the first meeting 62-48 at home Dec. 17. Coleman was held to nine points, but last week’s game painted a different portrait of the senior’s potential.
“My shots were just coming into a rhythm and they started falling,” said Coleman, who hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 30 seconds remaining.
The Knights improved to 13-4 overall, 10-3 against the league following last Friday’s win. Bowden will coach Bremerton to the Class 3A West Central District tournament this month in his first season. The program lost guard Jarell Flora to Seattle University and head coach Casey Lindberg, who left in the offseason to become assistant principal at Kopachuck Middle School in Gig Harbor.
The duo helped lead Bremerton to a league title and state tournament appearance last season, and both were in attendance for the Kingston game.
The former Knights standout said Saturday at Seattle University that he was proud of Coleman, who dedicated the final 3-pointer of the night to his friend, Flora.
Bowden praised Coleman’s leadership in the crucial game, and said the team shares its victory with a small town that’s witnessed its only high school undergo a makeover in 2010.
“This is big for everybody,” Bowden said. “When you have that kind of support, we hope we can reward them with wins. We want to win for the program, the guys, the school and community. Everyone’s been very supportive of me.”
Knights post player David Lewis said the team is trying to win as many games as possible to earn a high seed for districts. Lewis believes they have the potential to win more games this season regardless of the past.
“The win shows that we can play as a team, it doesn’t matter who’s there, we’re just going to play together,” he added after the game.
