BOYS BASKETBALL: Kentridge falls to Puyallup, takes No. 4 seed to West Central District tournament

The Kentridge High boys basketball team ran out of gas Friday afternoon at the ShoWare Center.

Despite 25 points from star Gary Bell and 14 more from Brendan Westendorf, the Chargers blew a 13-point third-quarter lead in falling to Puyallup 61-60 in a South Puget Sound League seeding game.

Puyallup didn’t take its first lead until 1-minute, 10 seconds remained in the fourth quarter, when guard Jay Balmer split the defense for an uncontested layup, giving the Vikings a 59-57 advantage. Kentridge (15-7) went up seconds later on a 3-pointer by Denzel Daniels, but it was to no avail.

With four seconds remaining, Puyallup’s Dom Holub worked his way past Westendorf and through the middle of the Kentridge defense for what proved to be the game-winning basket. Bell took the in-bounds pass and tossed up a half-court shot that was precisely on line, but rimmed off.

Bell scored 16 points in the first half, but was harassed by a double-team the entire second half.

“I was a bit fatigued,” he said. “But that’s no excuse. We didn’t play defense (in the second half).”

Kentridge played the entire game without 6-foot-6 post Caleb Smith and 6-foot-3 forward Kevin Brown. Smith has started most of the season for the Chargers (15-7).

“(Puyallup) has a whole team of guards and we needed ballhandlers out there,” said Kentridge coach Dave Jamison.

It was Kentridge’s third loss in its last four games, two of which came by just one point.

“It appears we ran out of gas,” Jamison said. “They took it to us a little bit (in the second half).”

With the loss, Kentridge will take the No. 4 seed to the West Central District tournament. Kentridge will host the SPSL No. 6 seed (either Rogers or Kentwood) at 7 p.m. Wednesday night.