Jordan Thompson Walker couldn’t conceal the pain any longer Tuesday night at Tahoma High. The previous 48 hours simply had been too much for him and his Kent-Meridian basketball teammates.
Playing their first game since the death of teammate and close friend Dorian Tursic, the Royals dropped an epic, 71-68 double-overtime heartbreaker to Tahoma on what appeared to be an impossible shot at the buzzer.
Pacing the locker room moments later, teeth clenched and fighting back tears, Thompson Walker delivered an emotion-laced message to the Royals.
“This close, man! This close,” he barked, holding up his right hand, his index finger nearly touching his thumb. “But you know what? Dorian is up there right now looking down on us and he’s smiling with how we played.”
Tursic, 18, died Sunday morning after the 2004 Chevrolet Impala he was driving crashed into a tree.
He is gone, but won’t be forgotten — especially not by the Royals.
“We came out here to play hard for Dorian,” said guard Gary Bailey, who wrote in red on his shoes Tursic’s name and jersey number. “He’s in our hearts.”
Tursic, a 6-foot-2 guard who transferred to Kent-Meridian from Tyee before the school year, recently had moved into the starting rotation.
The Royals dedicated Tuesday night’s game – and the rest of their season – to Tursic, a kid who grew into a charismatic and emotional leader in just a few short months with the team. In honor of their fallen teammate, the Royals wore black armbands with Tursic’s number 22 stitched in white. In addition, Tursic’s jersey was draped over an aluminum, fold-out chair on the bench.
“He meant so much to us. He was an inspiration to me and the rest of the team,” forward Sergio Arroyo said. “He was one of those guys who worked the hardest, and finally, he got out there and was starting.”
The loss of Tursic remains surreal to the Royals.
“It’s like a dream,” said forward Brandon Harris. “He was just with us the other day. I can’t explain it.”
The emotion of Tuesday night’s game also spilled into the bleachers, where several K-M students sported white, hooded sweatshirts with Tursic’s number on the sleeve and picture on the back. Several students signaled the number 22 with their hands throughout the game.
Playing with their hearts on their sleeves and Tursic on their minds, the Royals delivered their finest game in more than two years, coming back from double digits down to force the first overtime and a four-point deficit to force the second.
“We fought, we fought and we fought. We made big play after big play, but so did they,” said Kent-Meridian coach Brian Lockhart, tears in his eyes. “Emotionally, the kids were wiped out. Any K-M team in the past would have folded. These guys showed major resiliency.”
It was a game that, if played at the college or professional level, would be seen in reruns for years to come on ESPN Classic. A game that included big defensive stops, tears of joy and of sorrow, and more than a handful of clutch shots, the last of which was delivered by 6-foot-8 Tahoma star Christian Behrens.
With 2.9 seconds left in the second overtime and with his back to the basket, Behrens collected the inbounds pass just past halfcourt with K-M’s Harris and Barento Ahmed draped all over him. In a fraction of a second, Behrens turned, elevated and drained an off-balance, fade-away 3-pointer from 23 feet out, lifting the Bears to victory.
The ball cleared the net just as the final buzzer sounded, sinking the Royals’ spirits.
“We let our emotions go wild all night and that was kind of like a dagger in the heart,” Arroyo lamented.
Behrens celebrated the shot, but fully understood the gravity of the situation on the other end of the court.
“We knew coming in about their loss (of Tursic) and we wanted to support them,” said Behrens, a junior who is one of the state’s top college recruits. “But, at the same time, we needed the win and we were going to do anything to get it. And then, after the game, we’d give them all the love we had.”
Behrens’ game-winner wiped out all the big shots the Royals delivered throughout the night – the 3-pointer from Bailey to tie it at 49-49 with 1:40 left in regulation, the two free throws Thompson Walker hit moments later that gave K-M a short-lived 51-49 lead, and the teardrop lay-up the 5-foot-3 Djuan Miller converted past Behrens with 20 seconds left in the first OT that gave the Royals a 58-57 advantage.
But Behrens’ big play didn’t erase K-M’s performance entirely. Thompson Walker (19 points) and Bailey (11) both recorded season highs. Miller proved to be the igniter off the bench, scoring 15, and Hoffman added 10.
It was a performance that would have made Tursic proud, Thompson Walker conceded.
“We wanted this so bad. We wanted this for Dorian,” the K-M guard said while wiping away tears. “All we wanted to do was win this game for him. Even though we lost, it feels good that we played well for him. He’s proud of us. He’s happy with how we played. He’s happy with how all of us played.”
Tursic left a bit of himself with all of the Royals, as well.
“I was out there going hard and didn’t get tired the entire game, and I couldn’t understand why,” Arroyo said. “I think (Tursic) gave me that extra gear. He was in my heart.
“He left us all with that inspiration.”
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