WIAA 4A/3A boys basketball game of day: Puyallup takes Drew Jones' magic-carpet ride to Class 4A championship date

Vikings handle West Valley of Yakima, 53-46, in WIAA semifinals behind Jones' game-high 24 points

Puyallup and Lawson Looker, left, advanced past West Valley of Yakima to reach first WIAA championship game since 1971. / Photo by Steve Faber

TACOMA, Wash.- Back in 1996, when Kevin Olson was a first-year assistant at Decatur High School, he witnessed one of the greatest put-a-team-on-his-back-to-the-title-game performances in state history when USC-bound Quincy Wilder led the Gators to the Class 4A championship game against Sehome.

And now, nearly three decades later, Olson is seeing something very similar as the Puyallup coach with guard Drew Jones.

Again, Jones was masterful, carrying the Vikings' scoring load with a game-high 24 points - 11 coming in a crucial stretch of the third quarter, and eighth-seeded Puyallup squeezed by No. 6 seed West Valley of Yakima, 53-46, in the WIAA semifinals Friday in the Tacoma Dome.

With the victory, Puyallup is in the state championship game for the first time since 1971.

While Olson admits Wilder, back then, and Jones now are two completely different players, he does see a similarity in how they've impacted their teams' extended runs.

"Quincy was dominant," said Olson, who was an assistant under Keith Cooper back then before taking over the program's head job. "And Drew is kind of in the same way.

"He is driving the car."

Puyallup was facing a very dangerous scoring team in the Rams, led by the Birley brothers and big man Parker Mills, who led the team Friday with 14 points.

After a quiet first half, Jones got cooking - scoring from all angles as all 11 of his third-quarter points came in the final six minutes.

"I had kind of a slow first half," Jone said. "Coming out of the locker room, I knew I had to step up a little bit to win the game. I hit a few shots and found a rhythm."

West Valley closed it to 43-40 in Mills' three-point play with 4:41 remaining, but Jones found Mason Sonntag for a give-and-go dunk as the Vikings score on six of their final possessions of the game to sew up a finals' spot.

Against a Gonzaga Prep team they faced in Spokane in the regional round.

"It's a 15-minute drive now (from Puyallup), and we are going to get them again," Olson said.

---