By Jeremy Martin

Following two consecutive losses, the Chief Sealth boys basketball team looked to take a little frustration out Tuesday night during a Metro League matchup with Franklin.

In a low scoring, chippy game, the Seahawks proved that patience is a virtue coming away with a 75-71 victory over the Quakers.

But it didn't come without controversy.

Trailing by three with just over a minute to play, Franklin guard Giovanni Williams followed a miss with what he hoped to be a tip in jam, but he was unable to grab the ball and instead grabbed on to the rim. He hung on to the cylinder for just a moment before dropping, and in the process was called for a technical foul.
The visiting crowed, visibly displeased with the call, loudly voiced its opposition to the whistle.

Sealth's Khaleef Griffin was called on to shoot the free throws, he hit both, the Seahawks followed them up with an Alloney Burris layup and Sealth was able to hang on for a thrilling home court win.

“It feels good to win one in league, we had some close ones, that one came down to the wire. It was maybe a little closer than we hoped coming out of halftime, but their a great program and we'd knew they'd be right there,” Chief Sealth head coach Colin Slingsby said.

The Seahawks took its largest lead of the game on what turned out to be the most exciting play of the first half.

With just under eight seconds remaining in the second quarter, freshman point guard Isiah Hart took the inbound pass on the Quaker baseline and raced down the hard wood. Swarmed by a double team as he past midcourt, he was able to split the defenders and heave a 20 foot leaner as time expired.

The shot dropped through the net and a sizable home crowed erupted in approval.

Not only did it ignite the fans, who until then had seen something closer to a shoving match than a shootout, but it gave Sealth momentum and a thirteen point lead entering the second half, and it would need all of those points to hold on for the win.

Hart's shot may have helped spark the team to victory, but it was the early play of guard Alloney Burris that allowed Sealth to dictate pace and hold serve during a physical, closely contested first half.

The senior played a fearless brand of basketball, slashing routinely to the rim, picking up buckets when it seemed like a lid had been placed above the rim, finishing with a game high 19 points.

Hart picked up the torch in the second half, leading the way for Sealth down the stretch. The point guard was able to fight through Franklin defenders and make a living at the free throw line in the final sixteen minutes of play.

He would net 17 points, three rebounds and three steals while hitting five second half free throws.
Griffin's stats weren't quite as gaudy (13 points and three rebounds) as those of his back court mates but he did an admirable job running the Seahawk offense, breaking the full court Quaker press and coming away with a massive second half steal under the Franklin rim, which allowed Sealth to hold on to what at that point was a tenuous 4 point lead.

“He's had a good stretch over the past couple weeks after having a slower start to the season than we expected. He's done a nice job coming back as a senior for us and making some big plays when we need them,” Slingsby said of Griffin.

It was an overall resilient effort from Sealth, who proved on Tuesday night that it could not only come out strong but weather the storm against tough metro league competition.
“Sometimes we made the right choices, other times we dribbled right into spots where they wanted us, but overall great on the resilience.

Some sloppy second half play came back to haunt Sealth down the stretch as Franklin put on a late game display of rebounding and defense, coming back from double digits to make the night interesting.
Led by Williams who seemed to come alive in the second half, the Quakers hit the boards with a serious sense of urgency and took every Seahawk miss as an opportunity to get out on the break and run.

“I was a little disappointed in our guys, a little too much standing and watching. As hard as they were going, they're going to get some. I thought we didn't put ourselves in the right spots in the second half and that's going to hurt us. Trips where they're getting three, four, five shot, it will be interesting to see the stats on that and break that down, but that really hurt us,” Slingsby said.

Williams would finish the game with a double double of 10 points and 10 rebounds while Vontre Howse, Joseph Riley and Emanuel Saile all netted eight.

Up next for Chief Sealth is a road date with Nathan Hale on Friday before returning home on Tuesday.