MARYSVILLE – After Monroe boys basketball won the District 1 3A Basketball championship at Marysville-Pilchuck High School on Saturday, coach Justin Prohn made sure everyone – from the players, coaching staff, managers, athletic trainers and any person who had a hand in the program – had a chance to climb the ladder and cut off a piece of the net before he took the steps himself.
With Monroe students and parents flooding the court to celebrate, Prohn looked out at his community and spun the detached net around in the air before flinging it into the crowd of players below. The No. 3 Bearcats (21-3) defeated the top-seeded Edmonds-Woodway Warriors (23-2) 61-56, claiming what Prohn believes to be the program’s first 3A District title in school history.
Final: Monroe wins 61-56
The Bearcats hang on and win the District 1 3A Championship@HeraldNetPreps pic.twitter.com/4Dp0j0ymTS
— Joe Pohoryles (@Joe_Poho) February 23, 2025
He wanted to share the moment with every Monroe supporter in attendance.
“This is what it’s all about,” Prohn said. “We got a lot of people that have been in our community for a long time, and they’re out here celebrating. We’re trying to celebrate and acknowledge them as much as possible. What a special thing for our community.”
Sophomore Isaiah Kiehl (19 points) and junior Chayce Waite-Kellar (16 points, 7 rebounds) led the Bearcats in scoring, while junior Dominic Castillo (9 points, 8 rebounds) made crucial plays off the bench at both ends. Edmonds-Woodway was led by senior Cam Hiatt, who scored a game-high 24 points.
The Bearcats had to take down the top two seeded teams in the tournament en route to their title, and after losing to Edmonds-Woodway by 17 points in the Wesco Crossover Games two weeks ago, they flipped the script on Saturday.
“We took it really (personally) after that loss,” Castillo said. “No one wants to go through that loss, and so we knew how we had a bit of work, we worked for it during practice, and we competed really (well).”
The first quarter went back and forth with a lot of fouls between the two sides and ended 11-11. The two sides continued trading scores, with the Warriors taking the lead before Monroe would tie it up again, until Waite-Kellar followed up a Hiatt 3-pointer with buckets on back-to-back possessions, the second coming on a putback layup to take a 21-18 lead with 3:11 left before halftime.
The Bearcats would not trail for the rest of the game, although Edmonds-Woodway stayed in it until the end. Kiehl hit a couple of free throws, and Castillo scored on a putback layup to help Monroe finish the first half ahead 27-20.
Waite-Kellar opened the third with a layup to extend the lead to nine, but Hiatt led the charge to slowly whittle the deficit to as low as two. The margin danced between two and four points for most of the fourth, with the Warriors staying in reach but the Bearcats responding each time.
With the score 55-51 in the final minute, junior Wyatt Prohn – the head coach’s son – intercepted Hiatt’s pass up the court and knocked down 1-of-2 ensuing free throws after he was fouled with 36.2 seconds left to extend the lead to five. The Wesco titans exchanged free throws to reach the 61-56 final.
“I think this is something that we’ll look back on way down the road, and celebrate together a little bit more,” the elder Prohn said. “I’m really proud of him and this team in general. They’ve been together for a long time, and each and every one of them are like a family to us. … So yeah, he’s my son, but he’s also one of our players, and all these guys are our family. And I just love them. It’s a special thing.”
The immediate aftermath of the contentious game included a heated exchange between the two coaching staffs following an incident in the handshake line, about which Prohn did not want to divulge the details.
Instead, the Bearcats will focus on the hardware, delivering a title to their community before focusing on the state tournament ahead.
“It’s a surreal feeling,” Waite-Kellar said. “Just looking around, everybody holding the (trophy). It’s just surreal.”
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