The great escape artist, Harry Houdini, pulled off some miraculous feats during his career, but even he would be amazed at the escape the Lynden Lions pulled to narrowly edge the Bremerton Knights, 53-52, in their 2A state semifinal battle, Friday, in the Yakima SunDome.
That was the score after the Lions junior forward Brant Heppner split two free throws to give the Lions the lead with 33 seconds left. And the Lions had to put up two defensive stands to make it hold up.
With a few seconds separating the shot clock and game clock, the Knights worked the ball up the floor and called a timeout with 22 seconds left to set up their game winner.
Knights freshman point guard Jalen Davis, who was having a tournament to remember, dribbled toward the left side, but his pass toward the sideline was mishandled, and bounced on the sideline, turning the ball over to the Lions with eight seconds left.
Having to foul, the Knights had no choice but to foul the two-time state tournament Most Valuable Player, the Lions Anthony Canales, as he received the inbound pass.
With six seconds left, Canales, normally an excellent free throw shooter, missed both shots, and the Knights rebounded and called timeout with 5.6 seconds on the clock.
Davis, who had scored 33 points on the night, inbounded the ball and trailed teammate, senior guard Trenton Bulmer, as Bulmer dribbled hard down the floor. Davis was trailing the play to possibly take a pitch back from Bulmer and take the winning shot.
However, Canales stayed right in front of Davis as they ran down the floor, and Bulmer had no choice but to put up an off balance 12-foot shot going hard to his left, and it did not get to the rim as the buzzer sounded.
The game came down to this point because of the outstanding play of the freshman, Davis, who scored 28 points in the #11 Knights upset of #6 Mark Morris, and 23 more in the Knights upset of #4 Renton.
Against the Lions, Davis scored 15 of the Knights 19 first quarter points as the teams were tied after an initial eight-minute shootout.
A switch in the Lions defense to a 2-3 zone helped to slow down Davis and the Knights, holding them to nine second quarter points, as the Lions opened up a 35-28 lead.
The Lions lead grew to eleven on a Canales 3-point shot late in the third quarter, but the Knights responded with a two-pointer by Davis, then a three from Bulmer, and another three by Davis, and the Lions lead was just 44-41 at the end of the third quarter.
Davis hit another 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter to cut the Lions lead to 45-44 with 5:46 left. Then the Knights took the lead on a lay in by junior center Frank Allen.
But the Lions got the lead back seconds later, as Heppner hit Canales on a backdoor cut down the middle of the lane for a two-hand slam.
With the Lions leading by three, Davis connected from outside the top of the key to tie the game at 52-52 with 45 seconds left. That set up the dramatics of the final 33 seconds.
As well as the Lions play defense, even they had no answer for the play of Davis, who hit 12 of the 15 shots he took from the floor. He hit eight of nine shots from inside the arc, and four of six outside the arc. The only other scoring threat on this night for the Knights was Bulmer, who scored 13. Two other players combined for the other six points for the Knights.
Canales’ 24 points was followed by Heppner’s 11. Junior Jack Stapleton and senior Charlie Ayres scored six points each.
The Knights shot 50% from the field for the game to the Lions 39%, but the Lions outrebounded the smaller Knights 37-18. The Lions collected 19 offensive rebounds which allowed them to take 13 more shots from the field.
The Knights now get the pleasure of playing for third and fifth places against Olympic League rival, #3 North Kitsap, who has beaten the Knights twice this year, by 26 and 36 points.
The Vikings were surprised by #2 Grandview’s own Houdini trick, as they overcame a 17-point third quarter deficit to beat the Vikings, 71-64, in the second 2A semifinal.
The Lions will have a chance at the third consecutive state championship when they take on the CWAC champion Greyhounds at 3pm on Saturday.
Get the glow sticks ready.
~ Ted House
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