KELSO — Rainier Mountaineers head coach Ben Sheaffer often encourages his players to be “hard to guard” while coaching from the sideline or during timeouts.
The Mountaineers had an arduous time guarding Adna’s Trevin Salme, who lit up the scoreboard with 30 points to lead the Pirates to a 67-47 win over Rainier in the 2B District 4 semifinals in Kelso Wednesday, Feb. 19.
With the victory, Adna punched its ticket to the district title game for the third consecutive year and clinched its fourth straight state berth. The Pirates are seeking their first district title since 2018 and redemption for back-to-back title game defeats the last two years.
“We talk about it every year. That’s goal number one every season,” Adna head coach Luke Salme said of the district title. “The league title…we don’t care about that stuff. Everybody in our league wants to play in that game Saturday night. I’m pumped for these guys to get there.”
Rainier jumped on Adna in the first quarter, forcing a Pirates timeout after an 8-3 blitz in the first two minutes. Mountaineers guards Jake and Josh Meldrum pestered Trevin Salme and Grayson Humphrey inside the 3-point line, so the two Pirates guards backed up and started drilling treys from the parking lot. James Meldrum answered Salme’s pair of threes with a bucket from deep of his own as the two Central 2B League foes traded leads.
Josh Meldrum attacked the basket for a layup to give Rainier a 19-18 lead with five minutes and 39 seconds left in the first half. From that point, Adna’s offense evolved from a slow burn into a raging inferno.
Salme took over, scoring 11 of Adna’s 16 points of a 16-6 run to close out the half on top 34-25. He finished the half with 17 points.
“Obviously he’s a great shooter and he shoots from deep, but he moves without the ball well,” Sheaffer said of Salme. “They’re clearly running a lot of stuff for him and setting some really physical screens that we had a difficult time fighting through or getting over.”
The Pirates continued to sizzle in the third quarter thanks to 19 unanswered points, in the midst of which Jackson Knittle made an impact with nine points. By the time the third quarter horn sounded, Adna was up by 25 points and Rainier was out of answers.
While Luke Salme admitted he sets “sky-high” expectations for his young team, largely his son Trevin, he said his players stepped up in a number of ways.
“I’m a pretty tough coach dad on [Trevin]. The ride home from the school on the bus will probably be a pretty positive and proud one,” Salme said. “They’re coachable, and they don’t quit. It doesn’t always have to be pretty, but we defended and rebounded tonight, and that usually wins.”
The Pirates will face Toledo in the 2B District 4 title game Saturday, Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. at W.F. West High School. Adna split both of its matchups with the Riverhawks, as Toledo fell at home 52-40 on Dec. 12 before stunning the Pirates on the road 53-46 on Jan. 18.
Trevin Salme said he was motivated to help his team not only play for a third straight district title game but to give veterans like Gavan Muller a chance to cut down the nets.
“All of the upperclassmen have been leaders the whole year, and we’ve bought into the program and we want to win for each other,” he said.
Rainier heads to a winner-to-state, loser-out game against Onalaska on Friday, Feb. 21 at 7:30 p.m. at W.F. West. Sheaffer said there is still plenty to play for as the Mountaineers could still earn third at districts with two wins.
“We get another opportunity and another winner-to-state game, but this time it’s a loser-out game, so that changes things a little bit,” he said. “My guys are competitors, and I know that they’ll be ready. I’m not too concerned about that.”
