Consider it payback.<\/p>\n
Kentwood\u2019s Josh Smith scored a team-high 22 points, grabbed 19 rebounds and blocked three shots, leading the Conquerors past Kentridge 74-54 on Tuesday night in a West Central District III loser-out boys basketball game.<\/p>\n
The Chargers (14-10) eliminated the Conquerors (15-10) last year in a winner-to-state, loser-out game and also knocked Kentwood into the loser\u2019s bracket of the district tournament the year before.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last two years, they\u2019ve beaten us in district,\u201d said Smith, Kentwood\u2019s 6-foot-9, UCLA-bound center. \u201cWe had to get some revenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, Smith knows all too well that the Conquerors still have another win between themselves and a state berth.<\/p>\n
On Friday at 8 p.m. at Foss High in Tacoma, Kentwood will be seeking its first state berth since 2007, when it plays Beamer (17-7). Beamer, which qualified for state for the first time last year, stunned Lincoln 56-55 in the earlier game Tuesday night to avoid elimination.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still have one more game,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
Kentwood couldn\u2019t find its shooting touch in a quarterfinal loss to Decatur last Friday night, but found its groove at the beginning on Tuesday, connecting on its first six shots and finishing the first quarter 10 of 13 from the field. The result was an instant 22-9 lead, which was built on a balanced offensive attack in which each Kentwood starter scored at least once.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey came out and got hot (and) were hitting everything,\u201d conceded Kentridge\u2019s Gary Bell, who scored a game-high 27 points. \u201cThey went on a little run (in the fourth quarter) and we couldn\u2019t stop them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell\u2019s big night came in front of University of Washington men\u2019s basketball coach Lorenzo Romar, who was stationed in Kentridge\u2019s parent section the entire game.<\/p>\n
Outside of Bell, however, the Chargers were unable to find another hot hand. Brendan Westendorf added 9 points for the Chargers while Dylan Zylstra chipped in seven.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Conquerors delivered one of their most balanced offensive performances of the season. After Smith, Jason Boyce, Tre Tyler and Alec Wilson scored 14 points apiece. Wilson, who had connected on just one 3-pointer in his previous four games combined after tying a school record with eight against Kentlake on Feb. 5, hit 4 of 6 from long range.<\/p>\n
Despite Kentwood\u2019s big lead, Kentridge didn\u2019t back down, outscoring the Conquerors 15-5 in the second quarter and cutting the halftime deficit to 27-24. Kentridge, which trailed by as many as 15 points early, didn\u2019t take its first lead until Zylstra converted a three-point play with 2:18 remaining in the third quarter, giving the Chargers a 40-39 advantage.<\/p>\n
The Conquerors responded quickly, going on a 21-5 run that ended the third quarter and opened the fourth. During the run Smith, Tyler, Boyce and Wilson all scored at least one bucket.<\/p>\n
Kentridge\u2019s Bell took the season-ending loss in stride.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told Tre and Josh to keep it in Kent,\u201d said Bell, who plays on the same select team as Smith. \u201cThey\u2019re the only team out of Kent that\u2019s going to state probably, so I told them to keep it in Kent, to bring back a trophy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith replied with class.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told (Bell) to keep his head up. He has got one more year,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIf this would have been us, I\u2019m done. So I told him to keep his head up, he should have a strong team next year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Consider it payback.
\nKentwood\u2019s Josh Smith scored a team-high 22 points, grabbed 19 rebounds and blocked three shots, leading the Conquerors past Kentridge 74-54 on Tuesday night in a West Central District III loser-out boys basketball game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":19334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-19333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19333"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19333"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=19333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}