YAKIMA – An otherwise stellar season came to a painful end late Wednesday afternoon for the third-seeded Selah boys basketball team.

After a perfect 16-0 run through the CWAC, the Vikings stumbled to the finish line, punctuated with a 67-63 overtime loss to No. 11 Columbia River in the round of 12 of the Class 2A state tournament in the Yakima Valley SunDome.

For a second straight game, Selah had matchups rarely seen in a CWAC that was down a bit after graduation took its toll. Even the Vikings had eight seniors on its fifth-place finishing team of a year ago.

“Anacortes and this game, it was just different physically,” Selah coach Jordan Starr said. “It’s something we are going to think about this offseason and come back more prepared and stronger, ready to face those teams.”

The Vikings started quickly Wednesday, taking a 29-18 lead in the second quarter. Columbia River, however, responded with a 17-0 run that bridged the first and second halves.

Zone and box-and-one defenses helped slow Selah’s attack.

From there, it was back-and-forth.

A 35-29 Rapids’ lead was quickly erased by an 8-2 Viks run, senior Carson Decker scoring all of the Vikings’ points.

Selah took a brief lead in the fourth on one of JR Depell’s five 3-pointers. He later tied the game 52-52 with another long ball, and finished with a team-best 18 points.

Columbia River responded with two straight buckets for a four-point lead.

A bucket by CWAC MVP Oliver Pepper and a steal and layup by Decker sent the game to OT.

The Rapids scored the first five points of the extra session and kept their distance.

“That’s a very good basketball team with a lot of length and a lot of size and strength,” Starr said. “They were well-wounded. How they were an 11 seed is beyond me.”

Pepper finished with 17 points, and Decker had 10. Junior forward Jaxon Benge totaled eight points and eight rebounds.

The Vikings finished the season 21-6, and were looking to advance to the quarterfinals for the fifth time in the past 10 tournaments.

Selah had just two seniors – Decker and Finn Tait – and will likely be the conference favorite next season.

“We knew we had a special group coming back we just had to put it together,” Starr said.