Boys Basketball: Panthers pounce on the Crusaders late to claim comeback victory

This past Tuesday, the Seattle Prep Panthers traveled to Sammamish to take on the Eastside Catholic Crusaders in a thriller. The result came down to Prep’s Nirvaan Mirsa, who hit a game tying three-pointer with 5 seconds to go in regulation, and Mason Winegardner, who made the go-ahead free throw, that made the difference and claimed a wild comeback victory for the away team.

The Crusaders had strong first half performance from junior guard Kevelle Parkman with 12 points. He had the hot hand, hitting 4 threes in a row. On the Panthers’ side of things, Beckham King had a monster first half scoring 15 points early and keeping the Panthers within striking distance up until the interval when the Crusaders led 40-33.

The Crusaders had some crazy second half performances from junior center 4 star Yabi Aklong and senior guard Alex Elston, both scoring 13 a piece in the second half. Aklog finished with 22 points and Elston with 20.

As for the Panther having an exploding second half performance from senior guard Nirvaan Misra scoring 12 points and finishing with 19 and King finishing the game high, 23 points.

The Crusaders opened the 4th quarter up 12, but the Panthers were not out of it. Complicating matters was that EC’s Parkman was in foul trouble, so the Crusaders made the decision to sit him. The Panthers pounced a series of crucial turnovers and started working their way closer to the Crusaders, who were hanging on to the lead and fighting against the momentum of the game. Despite holding the lead for the majority of the contest, Prep’s last-minute heroics doomed the Crusaders to a deflating loss early in the season.

The next game for the Panthers will be them facing off against the Roosevelt RoughRiders on Friday 13th. For the Crusaders will be traveling to the Dog House to take on the Garfield Bulldogs, Friday 13th.