The third quarter of the game that sent Garfield basketball to State captured the season in a nutshell. Facing Redmond only two weeks after a Redmond fan sprang into play and punched senior guard De’Andre Taylor in the head, the game, surprisingly, lacked energy for the first two quarters. Garfield clearly possessed the better team, but Redmond, clawing for position and clinging to what little remained for its chances at state, trailed by only seven points at the half.

By the end of the third quarter, the Bulldog lead had grown to 28 points. In an eight-minute span, Garfield scored 23 points. More impressively for its chances in state, the Garfield defense held Redmond to only two points in the quarter. Much to the delight of the Garfield faithful, the JV boys subbed in during the fourth quarter and finished Redmond off 65 – 45, giving the team a berth at the state tournament.

During the pivotal third quarter of the game, Garfield relentlessly pushed the ball on fast breaks and played pressure D, leaving Redmond nowhere to hide. This ability to shift its game into a higher gear the opponent does not possess is the crucial factor in the Garfield’s impeccable 16 – 0 KingCo resume. No matter how close the opponent manages to stay, Garfield inevitably steps up its game at critical moments and pulls away.

“There are almost no teams in KingCo that are as deep as we are,” says junior Wilson Platt. “By the third quarter, teams get tired. They usually come out against us playing hard, shooting extremely well, but then they start to get rattled. It’s hard for them to hit a three-pointer.”

Despite the Bulldogs perfect KingCo record, the “pundits” remain skeptical. 16 – 0 in Kingco does not impress, they say, because KingCo itself is a weak conference. With the departure of Franklin to Metro, KingCo lacks athleticism and firepower.

In terms of explosiveness, Garfield towers head and shoulders ahead of the competition in its own conference.

“From the standpoint of a guy who just tries to get rebounds, KingCo is much more fundamental this year,” says Platt. “All the teams have really good fundamentals. They all box out well, and shoot well, so we have learned how to handle that.”

However, Garfield has not fared well when matched up against the stronger, more athletic teams in the nation.

“We haven’t experienced many teams who are just as athletic as us,” says Platt. “We’ve played four teams on our level athletically, and we’ve lost three of them.”

Of those four games, against Lawrence North, Duncanville, Foss, and Franklin, Garfield has defeated only Duncanville, and by the narrowest of margins.

Largely due to the development of some younger players, however, Garfield is not the same team that lost to Franklin earlier in the season. Sopohmore Salim Gloyd has transformed himself from a turnover machine into a scoring machine. Glenn Brooks, after playing almost not at all last year, has emerged as the third best player on the team after Tony Wroten and Taylor. And Wroten. His jumpshot, once erratic at best, has blossomed into a buttery work of art.

Nonetheless, even Wroten is not consistently playing as well as he will need to play for the team to move beyond the first few rounds at State.

“Honestly, what Tony is doing right now isn’t not even close to what he could be doing,” says Platt. “He’s not finishing at the basket at a level he’s accustomed to. He’s not rebounding at a level he’s accustomed to. And if he had played at the beginning of the season, he would easily be on an entirely different level.”

Garfield basketball faces a crossroads in its season. We look at the first half of the Redmond game and we look to the past, to a team that plays inconsistently and that survives on its raw talent. In KingCo, Garfield has simply out-played any and all competition. The team possesses more athleticism, more depth, and better coaching than its conference rivals.

Heading into State, however, uncertainty clouds the future. Garfield entered the season with high expectations, and the team enters the state tournament confident, but wary of other teams in the mix — Federal Way for instance — that possess their athleticism and skill, that are worthy tests of their progress as a team. It’s an appropriate climax to the season of a heavily scrutinized high school team.

At State, Garfield must prove it can apply the same pressure to its more highly touted opponents that it has faced itself throughout the year, both on and off the court. It must feed off of the intensity, passion, and skill of its dominating third quarter performance against Redmond, and lift the arc of its game to that level throughout the state tournament.