POULSBO — The North Kitsap boys basketball team outlasted North Thurston 47-45 Tuesday in a sub-district playoff nail biter.

The Vikings’ Taylor Hoffer led all scorers with a whopping 26 points, and Kyle Erickson added another 15.

North now takes the No. 1 seed going into the Class West Central/Southwest district tournament. They face No. 3 seed Lakes Thursday at 8 p.m. at Clover Park High School in Lakewood. The winner will play in the state tournament starting next week.

“At this point in the season, everybody’s good,” said North Kitsap coach Tony Chisholm. “We’re a number one seed, we’re going to play a three seed. That doesn’t mean nothing.”

The Vikings gathered steam early in Tuesday’s game, jumping out to a 6-0 lead with the home crowd behind them. But the Rams fought back and led 12-8 early in the second quarter. That’s when the Vikings decided to switch up their defense.

“We started off in a 3-2 zone,” said Chisholm. “I kind of felt we were giving them too many open shots. Then we switched to man and did a really good job. Our guys just cranked it up a little more.”

By halftime, the Vikings had retaken the lead, 21-17. The Rams turned up the pressure in the second half, to hold North to within a few the entire game.

“Patience was they key,” said Hoffer. “It was always a close game.”

Late in the third quarter, Hoffer took the rare opportunity to throw down a two-handed dunk, eliciting a “You got dunked on” chant from the student section.

The Vikings kept the lead throughout the fourth quarter, despite aggressive Ram efforts on both sides of the court. With 7.3 seconds left, North Thurston’s Alex Tucker went to the line to cut the Viking lead to one. But Hoffer was fouled on the ensuing drive, and sank a free throw to put the game away.

Coach Chisholm called Tuesday’s game a “confidence builder.” The next challenge will be to translate that momentum into a win against Lakes.

“We’re pretty confident in what we have,” said Erickson. “We’re definitely going to be focused for that next one.”

Staff Photos by Brad Camp

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