After Northwest Conference teams went a combined 3-0 in regional games on Friday, they registered three wins in five games on Saturday. Seven of the eight are still alive, while the NWC boys league champion was eliminated.
The Mount Vernon Bulldogs, who won the NWC title with a 14-1 record, lost at home to a very strong Todd Beamer team, 73-52, Saturday night, ending their season with a record of 20-4.
The Bulldogs took early momentum with an 8-2 lead, but not much went right after that. The Titans outscored the Bulldogs 18-8 over the rest of the opening quarter. By halftime, the Titans rolled to a 15-point lead, as the Bulldogs could muster only seven second quarter points.
The Bulldogs trailed 54-40 after three, and the Titans put the Bulldogs away late in the fourth quarter, expanding the lead to over 20 points.
Senior guard Quinn Swanson scored 17 points in his final game as a Bulldog. Junior Xavier Neyens scored 12, with nine coming in the first quarter.
The Titans, now 19-4, advance to the Tacoma Dome for an elimination game, Wednesday, at 1215pm, against Wesco champion, Mountlake Terrace.
The news was better for the Lynden Christian Lyncs, as they led from wire to wire, and advance to the state quarterfinals with a 59-51 win over Lakeside, Saturday, at Lynden High School.
Junior Grace Hintz and sophomore Ella Fritts combined for 13 of the Lyncs 17 first quarter points.
The Lyncs settled for a 33-26 halftime lead, after leading by as much as 13 points in the second quarter.
The Eagles (19-5) got within eight with just over a minute to go, but after an LC timeout, Fritts finished a perfectly executed sideline inbounds play with a wide open lay in, putting the Lyncs back up by ten.
Hintz finished with 16 points, and Fritts added 13. The Lyncs also hit 14 of 18 free throws in the game.
Senior guards Ayanna Tobeck and Rylee Darnold scored 14 and 13 points, respectively, for the Eagles, who will play Montesano in an elimination game on Wednesday, at 345pm in the SunDome.
The Lyncs (18-7) advance to the state quarterfinals, Thursday at 715pm. They will play the survivor of Wednesday’s elimination game between Eatonville and Kings.
After a two-week layoff, the Lynden Christian Lyncs blew past the Seton Catholic Cougars, 71-39, Saturday, at Lynden High School.
The Lyncs took the District 1 crown on February 10, and used the second half as a springboard to the state quarterfinals, outscoring the Cougars 39-18 over the final two quarters.
It wasn’t like the Lyncs showed any kind of rust, early on, however. Senior Dawson Bouma and junior Gannon Dykstra went about their business, draining shots and combining for 13 of the Lyncs 16 points in the first quarter.
Seton Catholic, with only one senior, is a very athletic and aggressive team. An early 11-0 deficit to the Lyncs slowly evaporated, as freshman Kaiden Wilson took control for the Cougars.
Wilson, with a similar build as the Lyncs bulky seniors, Jeremiah Wright and Kayden Stuit, drove the middle of the Lyncs defense and rose for a hard one-handed jam, late in the first quarter.
After a 3-pointer by Rico George, right before the buzzer, the Cougars had cut the Lyncs lead to 16-13 at the end of the quarter.
Stuit and Wright scored their first points of the game in the opening seconds of the second quarter, as the Lyncs built the lead back to nine.
At the 3:52 mark of the second quarter, Wilson picked up his third foul, and spent the rest of the half on the bench.
Even with that, the Cougars climbed to within three of the Lyncs before halftime, but the Lyncs got the lead back to 11 at the break. Junior forward Luke VanKooten came off the bench and scored eight points for the Lyncs in the first half with a pair of 3-pointers.
VanKooten, Bouma and Dykstra all hit a three in the third quarter, as the Lyncs built the lead to 50-28 with eight minutes to play, but the real highlight reel was yet to come.
At the start of the final quarter, Wright took a dish from freshman guard Dawson Hintz, and jammed it home. Then Wright, with the ball on the right wing, was dared to shoot. He did, swishing a 3-pointer. Then another dunk by Wright, and the rout was on. The Lyncs scored the first 14 points of the quarter.
The loss sends Seton Catholic (17-6) to an elimination game, Wednesday at 1030am, against the Meridian Trojans.
The Lyncs advance to a quarterfinal game, Thursday at 2pm, against Wednesday’s elimination winner between Kings and Tenino.
The Anacortes Seahawks came from nine points down early in the fourth quarter to tie the game late, but could not get past the Renton Redhawks, falling 73-66, Saturday at Bellevue College.
The two teams lit up the scoreboard early, finishing with a 21-21 tie after eight minutes.
The Redhawks repeatedly took the ball through the Seahawks zone defense, scoring from deep inside, several times in the first quarter.
The Seahawks kept pace as junior Jake Andrew and senior Cooper Barton combined for 13 points. High-scoring junior guard Davis Fogle, the center of attention of the Redhawks defense, scored six points in the first quarter, but was mostly responsible for finding Andrew and Barton for open shots.
In the second quarter, the Redhawks scored from the outside, hitting four 3-pointers in the quarter, and opening up a 43-35 lead at halftime.
As the Seahawks closed the gap to five points in the third quarter, they still found themselves down by eight with eight minutes to play.
Still down by eight in the middle of the final quarter, Andrew hit a three, followed by a lay in from sophomore forward Micah Dickison, and another three by Andrew, cutting the Renton lead to 62-61 with 3:00 left.
Renton responded with a free throw, then a long 3-pointer by junior guard Dennis Johnson, giving the Redhawks a 66-61 lead.
Fogle hit a 3-pointer with 1:50 to play, then tied the game at 66-66 on a driving one-hand dunk with 1:14 left.
Sophomore guard Marques Ili-Meneese broke the tie with a minute left, and after a missed 3-point shot by Fogle, Johnson added a free throw for a 69-66 lead with 41 seconds to go.
The Seahawks had two shots at a tie, but 3-pointers by Andrew and Fogle missed the mark. A couple more fouls by the Seahawks led to four more free throws for the Redhawks in the final seconds.
Fogle, facing constant double-teams, finished with 25 points. Andrew hit four 3-pointers on his way to 20 points. Barton finished with nine.
The Redhawks, who won three straight games to capture the District 2/3 championship, got big games from Johnson and Ili-Meneese, with 23 and 19 points, respectively. They combined for 22 of the Redhawks 30 points in the second half.
The Redhawks (19-6) advance to the state quarterfinals. They will take the SunDome floor at 345pm on Thursday against the Bremerton-Mark Morris winner.
The Seahawks (20-6) will play an elimination game on Wednesday at 715pm against Columbia River.
Stay tuned for the next round of state tournament match ups in the coming days.
~ Ted House
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