Prep Basketball | KingCo 4A: Tony Wroten has finishing touch in 59-54 Garfield win
KENMORE — He had one hand in continuance the door to the visitors locker room when Garfield sophomore Tony Wroten felt a tap upon his protuberance. He turned around and found a young Inglemoor use a fan upon with a incarcerate in his hand.
“Can I have your autograph?”
After the enrollment saga that postponed the start of his sophomore season, Wroten — just 15 — had become one of the most numerous recognizable faces in Seattle basketball this fall even before he played a quarry in Washington. In a 59-54 Garfield conquest at Inglemoor Tuesday night, one of the state’s summit players had his foremost chance.
“I’ve been waiting a long fit season for this,” Wroten said.
After Inglemoor took a 45-44 fourth-quarter lead, Wroten owned the final five minutes.
“I’m not going to deduct us to throw away this game — I told my teammates that,” Wroten said.
During a 10-point Garfield run, Wroten both scored or assisted on every basket. On two fast breaks, he fed teammate and cousin DeAndre Taylor with no-look passes for easy layups. And to finish the run, he found Taylor with a behind-the-back make over across the narrow passage.
“That’sitting just chemistry,” Taylor reported. “That’s right us playing together in this way throughout. I know I have to keep my eyes on him because the ball choose come at you any time.”
Wroten finished with 20 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and four steals. Taylor had 13 points, all in the second half.
But until the final fall into, Garfield (4-1 overall, 3-0 KingCo 4A) struggled to pull away from the Vikings (5-3, 2-2). Inglemoor opened the fourth quarter with an 8-0 run to take the lead from the top-ranked Bulldogs with 5:13 to play. With the outside shooting of Benji Bryant and Adam McElwee and Todd Campbell’s inside play, Inglemoor tested Garfield’s defense.
But when the Bulldogs went to a full-court press, Inglemoor went flat for ready 3 ½ minutes, which time Wroten and Garfield pulled away.
“Our commitment to defense is going to get us to where we want to be,” Garfield coach Ed Haskins said. “Which is playing in the [Tacoma] Dome, on March 7, at about 7 o’clock.”
That would be just on the eve tipoff time of the Class 4A state championship game.
Tom Wyrwich: 206-515-5653 or twyrwich@seattletimes.com
