It was a banner week on the basketball court for Kent schools capped off with Kentwood’s boys team beating Curtis for the South Puget Sound League title Feb. 10.

The Conquerors lost to the Vikings in the same game a year ago with many expecting a similar result this year.

Kentwood’s boys team, however, continued to surprise everyone but themselves with a 49-41 win to earn the top seed into the district tournament.

Balanced offense and keeping mistakes to a minimum, something the Conks have been working on in the past two weeks, were the keys to victory against the Vikings.

Kentwood also scored 14 points off turnovers.

Isaiah Malvar led the scoring for Kentwood, including back to back buckets in the second quarter, with 11 points.

Malvar got a bucket in transition then capitalized on a Curtis turnover when he took a pass on a fast break, slowed down just enough in the paint to let the lone Curtis defender fly by and out of bounds, then put the ball in the hoop. He scored two points on the next Conks possession with another transition lay-in.

Taylor Jones his a jumper on the next possession for Kentwood with 3:40 left in the quarter to cap the 6-0 run and make it 17-11.

At halftime it was a 22-15 Kentwood advantage but Curtis came out of the locker room ready to go. The Vikings outscored the Conks 13-8 in the third period including a three pointer by Dominique Robinson, who scored 17 for Curtis, to cut the lead to 30-26.

Robinson then started off the third with another trey to help Curtis take a 31-30 lead but Austin Weiher answered quickly for Kentwood with a bucket underneath to make it 32-31.

Kentwood did not relinquish the lead again though Curtis did not let up.

With little more than three minutes left on the clock, Joe Kramer dropped in a jump shot to make it 43-37 Kentwood, who then spread the offense out and moved the ball around to run out the clock in ensuing possession.

Jones finished with eight points as did Kramer while Austin Benson had nine on 3-of-5 from the three point line.

Kentridge’s boys squad started it off on Feb. 9 with a 63-59 win over Spanaway Lake then the Kentwood girls kept it going in the first game at ShoWare Center on Feb. 10.

Senior point guard Maddison Rankin led the Conquerors with 18 points, including a trio of three pointers, one of which put Kentwood up 17-10 over Emerald Ridge in the first quarter.

Rankin put an exclamation point on the first period when she stole an Emerald Ridge inbounds pass from the Kentwood baseline and put it in the hoop to make it a 19-10 Conks lead as the final seconds ticked off the clock.

Kentwood didn’t look back after that, winning the battle of No. 2 seeds 57-44, earning the No. 3 berth in the 4A West Central District tournament.

Alycea DeLong chipped in 11 points while Sarah Toeaina added nine and Jenny Johnson score eight in the victory.

Next up at ShoWare was Kent-Meridian, which finished second in the SPSL North division, taking on Federal Way in a contest for the third and fourth seeds to the boys bracket in the district tournament.

This game started off slow, with the Royals and Eagles tied at 7-7 at the end of the first quarter, but the pace and scoring sped up in the fourth quarter as K-M held off Federal Way 46-39.

Gary Bailey took the Royals on his shoulders in the final period.

Kent-Meridian had a six point lead going into the fourth quarter and after a Martel Taylor-Barone bucket with 2 minutes, 38 seconds left in the game, the lead was 10 at 39-29.

Bailey hit his second three ball of the fourth after he spun away from a Federal Way defender, put the ball on the floor, the spotted up and drained the shot to get the lead back to 10 at 41-31 with two minutes left.

With 1:18 left, Bailey stretched the lead further with another three pointer, making it 44-31.

Federal Way fought back as Malik Montoya and D’londo Tucker hit back to back threes to cut the lead to seven.

But Bailey sealed the victory when he made both ends of a one-and-one after being fouled at midcourt with 10.5 seconds on the clock.

He finished with 16 points while Mike Banks had 11, Arman Brar had seven and Abu Kamara had six.

On Feb. 11 the Kentridge girls came away with a 47-43 win over Spanaway Lake at Auburn High.

The same afternoon the Kentlake boys traveled to Auburn High to take on Rogers for the seventh and eighth seeds into the district tournament which started Tuesday, after the Reporter’s press deadline.

Kentlake came away with the 61-58 win setting up a game at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Olympia.

Meanwhile, the Kentwood girls and boys both hosted Battle Ground on Tuesday night, with the girls playing at 6 and the boys at 7:30.

The Kentridge boys play at Bellarmine Prep at 7 p.m. Tuesday while the Chargers girls travel to South Kitsap to play at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Kent-Meridian hosts Evergreen at 7 p.m. Tuesday.