TACOMA — The run is over.

The North Kitsap Viking boys basketball teams’ seemingly magical season finally met its end Friday, at the hands of Yakima-area school Eisenhower in the consolation draw of the state tournament.

Though their last game was not the team’s finest performance — the Vikings endured a 26-6 fourth quarter run by the Cadets — Vikings’ coach Aaron Nations could not overlook his team’s first appearance at the state tournament in 17 years.

“It’s unfortunate, but I’m not going to say it’s disappointing,” Nations said. “You cannot beat being down here for three days.”

In the end, North Kitsap could not conquer one particular demon that the Vikings struggled with all season: maintaining a lead. NK led 45-40 heading into the fourth period before any semblance of defense by the Vikes left the building while the Cadets poured on the charge.

“One thing we haven’t had a lot of here in our three years is learning to play with the lead,” said senior Jared Prince, who scored 12 in the contest. “And that hurt us.”

But in the flurry of post-season activity, it was hard for the new-to-the-playoffs Vikings to adjust to the pressure, especially for a team that went 6-14 last year. North Kitsap (18-11) did about as much in the way of growing as any squad could, Vikings’ assistant coach Duane Petzoldt said.

“This team didn’t have a lot of time together and even though they were seniors, we didn’t have an experienced varsity five,” he said. “(They) really had a learning curve at about a 45-degree angle.”

Eisenhower’s Brandon Johnson scored a game-high 29 points to lead the Cadet attack — one that the Vikings could not contain.

“Our defense was breaking down everywhere,” said North’s Jacob Gonzales, who scored 13 in the game. “We weren’t stopping their penetration to the middle. And they just live and die off that.”

But despite the loss, the mood is bittersweet.

“We’re definitely disappointed. We felt we were definitely one of the top seven, eight teams here,” Gonzales added. “But looking back at it all, it was a great season. We accomplished so much, for not only our basketball, but for our community.”

And for many of the Vikings, the experience made it all worthwhile.

“I’m going to remember just being here,” said North’s Jordan Henry. “It’s something I’ll never forget.”

Their next season

Several of North’s Vikings will be headed onward to play college ball — but not before they play one more season in the Purple and Gold during spring sports.

Ryan Young, last year’s state javelin champion in track and field and favored to again make a run this year, is already committed to Cal Berkeley for that sport. Travis Tobin has been accepted at Central Washington University, Oregon State University and the University of Portland, and wherever he’ll go, he hopes to play baseball. Gonzales said he’s uncertain where he’ll go, but that he definitely wants to play basketball. Meanwhile, Prince is thinking long and hard about possible baseball and football careers at either the University of Washington or Washington State. Three-sport athlete Henry, like Tobin and Prince, said he’s thinking about baseball at Tacoma Community College.

But first, Henry commented, he’ll go for one more state title at North.

“I want a ring,” he said.

And those that aren’t graduating have big plans for next season. North’s Chris Zeringer, likely NK’s starting point guard next year, said that their goal was apparent.

“Hopefully to come back here,” he commented.

The coaches see promise in the up-and-comers as well.

“This is an excellent building block for the future,” Petzoldt said. “I think its great for the community to see how we got here and what it takes.”

“We thank the seniors and then its up to our underclassmen to remember what this was like and carry on that tradition that we’re trying to build,” Nations added. “Our expectations are to be back here next year.”