YAKIMA — Lynden boys basketball became the first team in Class 2A history to win a third straight state championship with an 85-54 win over Grandview on Saturday, March 2 at the Yakima Valley SunDome.
Senior guard Anthony Canales and junior forward Brant Heppner combined for 57 points to lead Lynden. Canales (29 points) won his third 2A state tournament MVP, and Heppner (28 points) became a five-time state champion — across football and basketball.
“Theres’ not a lot of people that are as blessed as me, with a whole town behind me, a family on the bench with me, on the team,” Canales said. “I don’t know, man. There’s nothing to describe it.”
Heppner had a team-high nine rebounds while Canales had eight. Senior forwards Jack Stapleton and Ty Holleman each finished with eight points.
Canales and Heppner both noted the struggles ahead of the season — particularly in rebuilding the team’s rotation. Just three players (Canales, Heppner and senior guard Brady Elsner) returned from last year’s title-winning team. And Canales was also the only significant contributor from the 2022 team.
“It’s a lot of early mornings,” Heppner said. “Coming before practice, staying late. We put a lot of time in.”
Brian Roper won his seventh state championship as Lynden’s head coach, adding a 13th overall gold ball to the Lions’ trophy case. It’s their fifth in the last six possible seasons. Roper now has three more titles than the Lynden gym’s namesake: Jake Maberry.
But Roper doesn’t care about the records or championships. He just wants to coach basketball.
“I look at each year as a separate group,” Roper said. “I like coaching basketball and helping kids grow up into being, hopefully, a little bit more mature young men when they leave our program. I honestly don’t think much about records and stuff like that.”
Canales, the program’s all-time leading scorer and arguably its greatest overall player after the third straight win, heaped praise on his coach.
“He’s a great coach, but most of all he’s just a great person,” Canales said. “No matter what I need from him, he’s there for me. Whether it’s basketball or life in general, I can always go to him to talk. I’m just so grateful for him.”
Lynden shot a blistering 54% from the field and 45.5% from 3-point range in what might qualify as the biggest game in program history. The Lions scored north of 20 points in each of the final two quarters, capping out at 28 points in the final period.
In the first quarter, it looked like it could go either way. Lynden had a meager one-point lead, 15-14, after eight minutes. Canales found his stroke early, scoring 10 points in the quarter.
Elsner, who had four assists and four boards in the first half, did what he’s done all year to help grease Lynden’s offensive wheels: drive in and kick out.
Grandview was making its 3-point shots early but couldn’t get anything in the paint. Once Lynden increased its perimeter pressure, the Greyhounds simply stopped shooting from beyond the arc.
The Lions created a ton of distance from there, outscoring Grandview 19-5 in the second quarter to take a 31-19 lead into halftime.
It only got worse from there for the top-seeded Greyhounds. Lynden’s lead kept inflating as Heppner got involved, and the 6-foot-6 forward had eight points in the third quarter alone — the product of exploiting Grandview’s soft interior defense.
“Our game plan was just get inside, get inside,” Heppner said. “We exemplified that, we attacked them, and just we took what the coaches gave us and just went with it.”
When Heppner and Canales checked out of the game with 2:30 to play, the Lions were leading by 29.
Grandview was led by 17 points from sophomore guard Francisco Medina, while junior post Cameron Draculan added 15, and junior guard Marcelino Armendariz tallied 12.
Lynden finished its season 24-3 overall, completing its three championship seasons with a 71-10 record. The Lions will graduate six seniors: Canales, Elsner, Stapleton, Holleman, Weston VanDalen and Charlie Ayres.
“It’s a blessing to have this community out here, man,” Heppner said. It’s a blessing just having this many fans, this kind of coaching staff — everything around you.”
Connor J. Benintendi is CDN’s sports editor; reach him at connorbenintendi@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 104.
