Muckleshoot Tribal boys basketball punches ticket to Spokane
Published 5:50 pm Monday, March 2, 2026
Making the trip to Spokane is starting to become the norm for Muckleshoot Tribal’s boys basketball team as the Kings punched their third straight ticket to the round of 12 after defeating Garfield-Palouse (19-8), 57-46, on Feb. 27 at Auburn High School in the regional round of the WIAA 1B State Tournament.
“I feel like with this group of boys it is almost like an expectation. But it is more learning, it is about work. We have to give everything we have to get there (Spokane),” head coach Dora Davis said. “The majority of these boys have been playing together their whole lives. This is their moment.”
The Kings (21-5) were given the 11th seed and had probably outperformed their seed based on their 20-5 record coming into their matchup with the Vikings. But the Kings took care of business and relied on their defense and three-point shooting to secure their spot at Numerica Veterans Arena.
Three different Kings finished in double figures with Garfield-Palouse’s Lane Collier leading all scorers with 22 points, with 11 coming in the forth quarter.
Muckleshoot and Garfield-Palouse played a contested first quarter with the Kings holding on to a 16-12 lead. Junior Evan Thompson and junior Payton Brown both opened up the scoring with a combined 13 of the 16 points between them (Brown 7, Thompson 6). Brown would finish with 14 points while Thompson finished the game with 9.
But in the second quarter, the Kings’ defense suffocated the Vikings’ offense. Across all eight minutes, the Vikings managed just four points. The Kings held their opponents to a 12.5% field goal percentage on 2 of 16 from the floor in the second period.
“That’s who we are defensively. It was time to turn it up and show everybody what we are capable of,” Davis said.
Muckleshoot didn’t have the best quarter themselves ,scoring just eight, but when you only give up four, the offense will find their legs.
And find their legs they did, as the Kings sprinted to a 21-point quarter, outscoring Garfield-Palouse’s first half (16) by themselves in the third quarter.
Muckleshoot shot lights out from beyond the arc, making five threes in the quarter from four different players. Junior Rylee Markantonatos had a pair of triples while Truth McDaniel, Kai Williams and Brown combined to make up the rest of the five makes.
“They play a lot of ‘rez ball.’ We have been working on playing organized ‘rez ball.’ We know our strengths and shooting threes is one of them. It takes one of us to get going and we all feed off of that,” Davis said.
Muckleshoot went into the fourth quarter with a 45-26 lead and were forced to close out the hard way against the Vikings. In the first three quarters, Muckleshoot took two total free throws from McDaniel in the first quarter. In the fourth quarter, as a team the Kings took 12 free throws to close out the game. Muckleshoot shot 58.33% from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter (7-for-12).
Muckleshoot will play No. 6 Liberty Christian in the round of 12, their first meeting in school history. The two sides will pair up March 4 in the early window with tip-off at 9 a.m. inside the Numerica Veterans Arena.
