EDMONDS — Edmonds-Woodway boys basketball coach Steve Call said Jason Smarr had a message for his teammates before Monday’s overtime period with Kamiak.
“I got this fellas, I will take care of this.”
And then Smarr went out and delivered.
Smarr scored the first 10 points of the overtime session, including two 3s and Edmonds-Woodway outlasted Kamiak 76-64.
“The team needed a spark,” Smarr said. “We lost the lead the last three seconds of the game and we just needed someone to step up and I felt that I was the person to do it.”
Smarr finished with 18 points.
With the victory, the Warriors have the inside track on second place in the 4A Wesco South. E-W leads the Knights by one game and each team has one game to play. The Warriors play Cascade and Kamiak plays undefeated Jackson. Both games are Wednesday.
Kamiak led for most of the first half and dictated the pace of the game. The Knights had the Warriors playing the up-and-down style of play that has worked for them for much of the season and took a 35-28 lead at halftime.
The second half was a much different story.
The Warriors switched to a 3-2 zone and slowed the pace of the game dramatically.
“That’s what we stressed at halftime,” Call said. “We said we were going to slow the ball down. Obviously they like to run and shoot in transition and get us taking shots that we aren’t comfortable taking. So that’s what we stressed at halftime, slow it down, slow it down, slow it down, play our game, half-court sets, look to our posts and that really worked for us.”
The pace of the game favored the Warriors, but the switch to a 3-2 zone was just as important. Kamiak’s Imaan Vicente, Wesco’s leading scorer, connected on a fadeaway jumper to begin the third quarter and extend the Knights’ lead to nine.
He never scored another point.
“Shots weren’t falling,” Kamiak coach Cory West said. “Obviously we looked real stagnant against that zone, which slowed us down pretty well. Usually we are real active against zones and we, for some reason, looked real timid and didn’t want to attack it. We wanted to shoot when we should have been swinging the ball. But we will be alright.”
Vicente scored 15 points on the night, well below his average.
Trailing 45-33 in the third quarter, the Warriors went on a 13-0 run to take the lead with just over a minute remaining in the period. The Knights’ Tyler Nielsen converted on a putback attempt as time expired in the quarter to give Kamiak a 47-46 lead, but there was no doubt momentum had shifted.
“If we could get it into single digits going into the fourth quarter that would be great, obviously we got more,” Call said. “I think momentum really carried us in the fourth quarter. We had a lot of energy and a great home crowd. I think that really helped us.”
The fourth quarter was tightly contested throughout, but the Warriors were able to extend their lead to five points in the final minutes thanks to back-to-back Travis Bakken baskets. The Knights fought back with a Nielsen jumper and a Henderson Belk putback to cut the Warriors’ lead to 57-56. Bakken added another score inside and the Warriors went back up by three.
Still a one-possession game, the Knights had a chance to tie in the final 30 seconds and took advantage when Josh Wisnubroto connected on a 3-pointer with 19 seconds to go.
Wisnubroto scored 20 points to lead all scorers.
Warriors’ point guard Devin Joseph missed a fadeaway jumper that would have won the game for Edmonds-Woodway.
Thanks to Smarr, it didn’t matter as the Warriors dominated the overtime session.
“They fed off the crowd and the environment for senior night and we didn’t,” West said. “They came out with a lot of energy ready to attack, attack, attack.”
Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on twitter @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com. At Edmonds-Woodway H.S.
Kamiak231212125—64
Edmonds-Woodway199181319—78
Kamiak—Josh Wisnubroto 20, Chance Lord 0, Liam Jouett, Tyler Nielsen 9, Aman Hussein 10, Imaan Vicente 15, Jonathan Lee 3, Drew Blacksmith 2, Brandon Wright 0, Henderson Belk 5, Simran Mand. Edmonds-Woodway—Devin Joseph 13, Alex Hull 2, Brad Rice 15, Luke Langdale 2, Tate Budnick 0, Sam Wooley 0, Theo Lebesis 8, Jason Smarr 18, Travis Bakken 20, Henry Olson 0. 3-point goals—Wisnubroto 4, Hussein 3, Vicente 2, Lee 1, Belk 1, Joseph 1, Rice 3, Smarr 2. Records—Kamiak 9-5 league, 10-9 overall. Edmonds-Woodway 10-4, 12-7.
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