By Ed Shepherd
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

Hard to equate a season as successful for a team when it finishes tied for last place in it's league with a 1-7 record and at 3-17 overall, but Mount Rainier finished its season strong.

The Rams did not win their final game of the season against Todd Beamer, the South Puget Sound League Northwest Division second-place team, but the Rams competed, losing, 61-52, to the Titans Friday.

"One thing I'm proud of is that we've fought hard every game," said Rams coach Ken Bush.

This game, the Rams played a superior team on paper, the Titans, who were with a much better record in league, 6-2, and overall 11-8, than the Rams. But, the Rams played toe to toe with the south Federal Way school, in fact being tied after the first quarter, 12-12.

Points from Rams' 6-4 sophomore forward Malcolm Cola led them in the first frame, with four, and the likes of 6-0 sophomore guard Nick Dammeier, who added a couple scores, and Austin Sharma, the team's senior leader along with Shawn Mamon .

The second quarter, more of the same kind of scoring from these Rams' players, minus Cola, who led the team with a game-high 14 points, but Cola didn't score in the second quarter. A few points in it from Cola, the team's season leading scorer, averaging 13 points per game, and the Rams just may have been tied, or gone ahead of the Titans, a team headed to the playoffs. As it was, the Rams didn't trail by much at halftime, but were back, 26-21.

But, the third quarter, that one equaled a real bugaboo for the Rams in this game. They were outscored, 24-13, really putting the away team on its haunches. That quarter just undid the Rams' chances of mounting any sort of comeback in the fourth quarter.

So, added up, the Rams trailed the Titans, 50-33, after the third quarter.

"We've been bit by the same bug every game -- our youth," said Bush. "We look like the best team on the floor, and then we have that five minutes."

That's what it was in this game. Five minutes. And, the first minutes of the third quarter were a defensive battle. Neither team scored until the Titans did with 7:05 left in the third, making it a 28-21 lead for the home team, on its senior night.

Then, Cola hit 1-for-2 from the stripe, cutting Beamer's lead to 28-22 with just over five minutes left in the third quarter, as the Rams played tough to start the third defensively. But from there, the Titans outscored the Rams, 22-11, in last five minutes of the third, getting an assortment of shots in, including one dunk. So, that gaping, 50-33, 17-point deficit, stared at the Rams going into the fourth quarter. A familiar spot, according to Cola.

"We usually start good, or finish well," said Cola, who has made a lot of blocks in this game and all season for the Rams in addition to being the team's leading point getter. "We have to apply that to every game. We can't let things fall apart. It's all about discipline."

So, the season is over now for the Rams, and the team loses Austin Sharma, the team's point guard, and Shawn Mamon, but Cola's back and a host of other young players that can lead this team.

"They will be great, they're growing every game, showing tremendous effort," said Sharma. "And, the young guys, in the face of a challenge, they stepped up."

This game? It was a loss, but against a postseason bound team like the Titans there was time through half the game that the winner was in doubt.

"Good way to go out, we played as a team," said Sharma ,who finished with 12 points, as did Dammeier, and Mamon added nine.

The Rams made this a game for a half, and a few minutes into the second half, keeping it close, in the third quarter. They then did get down by 17 at the end of the third quarter. But, brought it back down to a final nine-point difference at the end of the fourth quarter.

"We had improvement every game," said Bush.

Even in losses?

"Even in losses, we played hard, kept improving, showed a lot of maturity," said Bush.