It wasn’t the loss that hurt so much, it was the way they lost.
“It was extremely disappointing, extremely frustrating for all involved,” North Kitsap boys basketball coach Bob Fronk said the day after the Vikings’ 77-62 season-ending loss against Bremerton at Olympic High on Monday. “From the get-go, we were a step slow. We were soft and Bremerton was just the opposite.”
Bremerton and North had split games during the regular season, tying for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Narrows League Bridge Division with 5-7 records. Bremerton’s victory advanced the Knights (11-10) to another loser-out contest on Thursday at Foss High in Tacoma against the Bay Division’s No. 5 team (Bellarmine or Olympia).
The Vikings, who were riding so high early in the season, lost six of their last seven games and eight of 10 since the Christmas break to end the year 10-11.
“Yeah, talk about a nose dive,” Fronk said. “We were playing very good basketball at one point, but it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”
Against Bremerton, however, it came down to how the Vikings started. For
whatever reason, North didn’t match Bremerton’s energy in its biggest game of the season, especially at the outset when the Knights roared to a 17-4 first-quarter lead.
“It was like men amongst boys,” Fronk said after the game. “Everybody saw that. It was embarrassing.”
Bremerton led 38-22 at halftime.
“There was a little chewing out going on,” Fronk said of the atmosphere in Vikings’ locker room at the break. “The game can be real simple. We talked
about the guys waking up and playing with passion. We knew were weren’t going to get it back all at once.”
North did put together a 9-0 run early in the third quarter to pull within nine, but Bremerton answered with a 7-0 run and sailed away.
“We knew the only way to get back was ‘man’ defense,” Fronk said, “but we dug too deep of a hole. We did a better job, but why didn’t we play with that urgency right off the bat?”
North Kitsap senior guard Josh Mathews gave the Knights credit. “We knew they were athletic,” Mathews said. “They showed us tonight. They just ran us and played hard.”
Physically, North’s not a strong team and that was evident against Bremerton, which punished the Vikings inside with its frontline of 6-7 Marvin Williams (23 points, 17 rebounds), 6-2 Kellen Alley (14 points, 12 rebounds, 7 blocks) and 6-5 Noah Garguile (14 points, 19 rebounds.)
North’s Reid Ammann (16 points), Mathews (14), Chad Foster (12) and Bryan Haupt (10) combined for 52 points.
For NK seniors Haupt, Mathews, Jerrod Gonzales, Thomas Jordan and Sean Kelly, it was their last game as Vikings.
Fronk couldn’t put his thumb on what went wrong this season, although he admitted the Vikings’ on-court chemistry deteriorated as the year wore on.
“We never really established a true identity,” Fronk said. “We didn’t have a theme. We lost some close games. I don’t know if they lost confidence in the coach. Believe me, nobody second-guessed me more than myself. It’s hard to pinpoint. Our energy level and intensity just wasn’t there when we needed it.”
Bremerton, which rallied from 13 points back to beat North on Jan. 25 in Poulsbo, made sure it wouldn’t need another comeback on this night.
“This is my fifth year here,” he said, “and I’ve never seen Bremerton come out the way they did with that intensity, energy and physical aspect to their game. They definitely took advantage of their athleticism and need to be commended for that.”
As disappointing as North’s finish was, Fronk believes the players will benefit from the experience in the long run.
“Sports is a microcosm of life,” the former Husky star said. “I know it sounds cliche-ish, but it’s true. If there’s anything to derive out of what we’ve been through, it’s you’ve go to bounce back and pick yourself up.
“That’s the way life is. You’re going to have good days and bad days, tough days, but you’ve got to get up and go to work the next day. Those are the lessons sports give young people. It’s one of those deals 10-15 years down the road, where they’ll sit back and remember some good memories.”
