Sammamish clinches district berth with 77-54 victory over Liberty | Boys basketball

In the days prior to his team's loser-out game against Liberty in the opening round of the KingCo 3A tournament, Sammamish coach Wes Newton wanted his players to remember the last time they faced the Patriots.

In that Jan. 29 game, Sammamish let a 20-point halftime lead slip away for a 58-57 loss. This week, Newton sent each player home with a video copy of that game, instructing them to take a good look at it.

"They weren't too happy with it," Newton said.

This time there would be no comeback.

The Totems began the game with a 12-2 run and led from wire to wire, beating the Patriots 77-54 and clinching a Sea-King 3A district tournament berth. The victory Tuesday night propelled the Totems (13-8) into a semi-final game against No. 2 Bellevue on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Bellevue College.

"We had the motivation to come out hard and put them down in the beginning," said Sammamish senior Daniel Wruble. "We felt we needed to come out strong."

The Totems led 12-2 less than three minutes into the game and showed a strong defense presence, forcing the Patriots (7-14) to turn the ball over six times in the first quarter.

"That's our coach's philosophy, defense, defense, defense," said Totem senior Duncan Dickerson. "We knew if we came out hard, it'd be easy to put them away."

Then came the offense. Dickerson scored 12 of his game-high 19 points in the second quarter as the Totems shot 15 of 33 in the first half and led 40-24 at the half. Things didn't slow down in the second half as Sammamish kept pouring in the points, including four three-pointers in the third quarter, three of which came sophomore John Steinberg, who scored 14 points in the game.

Anthony Do added 11 points and Wruble chipped in 12 points and a game-high seven assists for the Totems - five of which went to Dickerson.

"Dan and I have been playing together since we were in seventh grade," Dickerson said. "Tonight things just really clicked."

Troy Solly led Liberty with 12 points in the loss.

With the win the Totems are assured a spot in the district tournament, which begins play next week. Its the first time Sammamish has qualified for the tournament in five seasons.

"I didn't want to cry tonight," Dickerson said. We didn't want to finish our season disappointed. This is just a dream."