Before their season came to an end in a 65-59 loss to Lummi Nation in a 1B State Boys Basketball Tournament consolation game on Friday, Willapa Valley junior guard Riley Pearson decided to make a little history.

Pearson, who was kept scoreless in the previous day’s quarterfinal loss to Northwest Yeshiva, erupted for 29 points while setting a 1B boys single game state-tournament record nine 3-pointers, putting a Willapa Valley stamp on the tournament despite leaving Spokane without a state trophy.

According to Riley’s uncle, Willapa Valley head coach Jay Pearson, Riley had a “heart-to-heart” talk with his father and assistant coach Jon Pearson after going 0-for-9 from the field after Thursday’s semifinal loss.

After missing a few shots early on in Friday’s elimination game, the Willapa Valley coaching staff instructed their sharpshooting leading scorer to attack the basket.

“We told him, ‘You need to get to the free-throw line because you are our best free-throw shooter,’” Jay Pearson said. “It built up from there.”

On a subsequent drive to the basket, Pearson was fouled and sank both foul shots, which seemingly zeroed his sights.

Pearson was red-hot after that, hitting 9-of-16 shots from beyond the arc (56%) in the game to set the tournament’s single-game 3-point record.

The game was close throughout, with the Vikings (20-6 overall) holding as much as a six point lead at 6:02 of the second quarter and — after trailing by eight points early in the third quarter — took a 49-46 lead into the final period.

ERIC TRENT | THE CHRONICLE Willapa Valley’s Wil Clements (5) stares down Lummi Nation’s Duncan Toby during the Vikings’ 65-59 loss in a 1B State Boys Basketball Tournament elimination game on Friday at the Spokane Arena.

But the Blackhawks (17-4) relentlessly attacked the basket and got to the foul line, making free throws and capitalizing on some key Vikings turnovers down the stretch to advance to the fourth/sixth-place game and eliminate Willapa Valley.

Duncan Toby led No. 7 Lummi Nation with 22 points and 10 rebounds while Tyran Lane also had a double-double with 20 points and 12 rebounds.

“Lummi is a good, quick team. They are solid, but we played hard,” Jay Pearson said, adding that despite suffering the season-ending loss, his team played noticeably better than on Thursday. “I feel 100 times better about this loss than yesterday. We played hard and competed. I’m really happy about the effort and how they left it on the court.”

Aside from Riley Pearson’s record-setting shot-making, Willapa Valley got eight points and eight rebounds from both Kolten Fluke and Grady Christen and shot 30.9% as a team on 21-of-68 from the field.

Coach Jay Pearson reflected on what he called “a season of firsts” for the Vikings.

“Thoughts to our senior players. It’s the last time they played for Willapa Valley and they gave four years of their life to us and we’ll always take care of them,” he said. “There were a lot of firsts this year: First (1B Columbia Valley) league title, first district championship. But our goal was to win this thing and that first-day loss really hurt us. We didn’t place but I’m proud of the kids. They didn’t give up and this was a moral victory. They battled and fought and left it all on the court.”

ERIC TRENT | THE CHRONICLE Willapa Valley senior Tyler Adkins (3) take a shot against Lummi Nation’s Tobias Francis during the Vikings’ 65-59 loss in a 1B State Boys Basketball Tournament elimination game on Friday at the Spokane Arena.

Willapa Valley 14 18 17 10 — 59

Lummi Nation 15 23 8 19 — 65

Willapa Valley (59) — Pearson 29, K. Fluke 8, Christen 8, Adkins 5, Hampton 4, D. Fluke 3, Keeton 2

Lummi Nation (65) — D. Toby 22, Lane 20, J. Toby 12, Francis 4, Abrams 3, Johnson 2, Bailey 2