With three straight trips to state tourney semifinal games, the Mt. Spokane Wildcats have compiled a resume of recent success at the 3A state boys basketball tournament. And this year, with another return to the semifinals, a no. 2 seeding and a 6-foot-8 scoring machine in junior Jaden Ghoreishi, the Wildcats have been considered one of the favorites to go all the way and win the 2025 3A state title.

But on Friday, Mt. Spokane ran into a roadblock on their way to the championship game — the  Edmonds-Woodway Warriors.

The no. 5-seeded Warriors stood tall, recovered from an early deficit and then stopped the Wildcats in their tracks with a 41-34 victory in a WIAA 3A State Boys Basketball semifinal contest played at the Tacoma Dome.

With the win, E-W will play in its first boys basketball state title game in school history Saturday. The championship matchup against no. 1 seed Rainier Beach will tipoff at 5 p.m. at the Dome.

An Edmonds-Woodway semifinal victory on Friday looked improbable early on in their game with Mt. Spokane. The Wildcats jumped out to a 13-4 lead midway through the first quarter after a Ghoreishi drive and score.

Then just seconds into the second quarter, Mt. Spokane’s Nalu Vargas put the Wildcats up 19-10 with his third long-range 3-pointer of the game

E-W Coach Tyler Geving admitted that his squad was stunned early on.

“I thought we took their best punch to start the game,” Geving said. “They were hitting some shots; credit to them — they came out ready to go.”

“There was always going to be one of those runs in the game,” he said. “And we answered it.”

While able to stay close (E-W was down just 25-21 at halftime), it wasn’t until late in the third quarter when the Warriors — and specifically senior Cam Hiatt — gained their footing and were able to get control of the game.

Starting with a 3-pointer at the 2:42 mark in the third, Hiatt scored 11 of the Warriors’ next 13 points — and all but two of the E-W points for the remainder of the contest.

A steal and subsequent fast break lay-in by Hiatt with 1:45 to go in the third quarter gave the Warriors their first lead of the game at 30-28, an advantage they would not surrender.

Until Hiatt’s outburst late in the third, the senior had a quiet 12 points due to poorer shooting performance than what Warrior fans have seen from the team’s leading scorer this season.

Hiatt recognized that his shooting touch was off early on (he converted just six of his 13 first-half shot attempts from the field and went 0-4 from beyond the 3-point arc before the halftime break). 

“There’s going to be times when shots aren’t falling,” Hiatt said. “So you’ve got to learn how to impact the game when that’s not working for you. The game is a lot bigger than just making shots.”

“You keep your head down, you keep it rolling and you’re ready for the big moment,” he said. So when it comes and you get a couple opportunities like I did in the third quarter there, things can turn around fast.”

Hiatt ended up with 28 of the Warriors’ 41 points to lead all scorers in the game. 

While Hiatt’s late-third and then fourth-quarter scoring strikes were vital, it was the Edmonds-Woodway team defense that proved to be the deciding blow in Friday’s game. Mt. Spokane was limited to just nine points in the second half as the Warriors contested nearly every Wildcat drive and shot after halftime.

“Our defense was unbelievable, wasn’t it?” Geving asked rhetorically.

To slow the Wildcats’ offensive push, the team clamped down on Ghoreishi by double-teaming him whenever he got the ball in the key. The big junior was limited to 12 points, a low for him after scoring an average of 19.5 points in Mt. Spokane’s two wins earlier in the week at the Tacoma Dome.

“He was good,” E-W’s Will Alseth said of Ghoreishi. “He was tall, athletic, big — it was hard. We just had to double-team him. We scouted him yesterday and knew we were going to have to double him. So that was the game plan; and it worked.”

Geving praised Alseth for his effort in guarding Ghoreishi, along with a pair of other Warriors who helped out with the game plan.

“Dre Simonson did a great job on the doubles,” Geving said. “Julian Gray was a beast inside.”

The 34 points scored by Mt. Spokane was the team’s lowest output of any game this season. It was the second straight game in which the Warriors had limited their opponents to a season-scoring low, and Alseth said he was excited about the possibilities of what E-W could accomplish in the team’s final game of the season — a state championship date with Rainier Beach Saturday.

“Defense wins championships; you’ve got to have great ‘D,’” Alseth said.

You can view the entire WIAA 3A Boys State Basketball Tournament bracket here.

For those not attending the Edmonds-Woodway-vs.-Rainier Beach 3A state championship game, live radio coverage will be provided by 950 KJR-AM with My Neighborhood News Network sports contributor Steve Willits providing the play-by-play.

Prep Boys Basketball: Edmonds-Woodway vs. Mt. Spokane, March 7 (WIAA 3A Boys State Basketball Tournament semifinal game)

Edmonds-Woodway 10 11 11   9 – 41

Mt. Spokane 16   9   4   5 – 34

Edmonds-Woodway individual scoring: Cam Haitt 28, William Alseth 6, DJ Karl 4, Dre Simonsen 3, Julian Gray, Grant WIlliams, Luke Boland, Harris Dobson 

Mt. Spokane individual scoring: Nalu Vargas 14, Jaden Ghoreishi 12, Cade Strocsher 4,  Colt Kenison 2, Rock Franklin 2, Jaceten Reijonen, Jake Lenberger, Tysen Lewis, Jacen Phillips

Records: Edmonds-Woodway 26-2 overall; Mt. Spokane 19-9 overall

Edmonds-Woodway next game: versus Rainier Beach; Saturday, March 8; 5 p.m. at the Tacoma Dome (WIAA 3A Boys State Basketball Championship game)

Mt. Spokane next game: versus Garfield; Saturday, March 8; 1 p.m. at the Tacoma Dome (WIAA 3A Boys State Basketball Tournament 3rd/5th place game)