SHORELINE — Trailing by 12 points at halftime, and having surrendered 45 points in the first two quarters, something had to change for the Edmonds-Woodway boys basketball team.
That something was defense.
Facing an emotional Shorecrest team on Senior Night, the Warriors shrugged off a lackluster first half with a spirited second half to post a 73-60 Wesco 3A South victory Friday night. The outcome clinched the conference title for Edmonds-Woodway.
“There’s a lot yet to do (this season), but it’s a heck of an accomplishment,” Warriors coach Robert Brown said of the title. “They wanted to go out and do it, they knew what was in front of them, and they didn’t shy away from it. It just shows the kind of kids they are.”
League champions? “I like the sound of that,” junior forward Ryan Peterson said with a smile. “Last year we barely sneaked into districts, so of course it feels incredible to be where we are. … It’s sort of a testament to how the team’s grown together and how we’re playing together.”
Still, at halftime the Warriors faced a significant uphill challenge. The two teams traded leads through the first quarter, but in the second quarter the Scots used a 15-2 scoring burst to take a lead that reached 45-33 at intermission.
“We gave up 21 points in the first quarter and 45 points in the first half, and you can’t win games like that,” Brown said. “We’ve been preaching (defense) to the kids, and at halftime we just had to come back and remind them.
“We get possessions off of our defense — off of stops, off of turnovers. But if we’re not committed to it, then it doesn’t work. Then they’re just running around for no reason. But they just had a real commitment to defense in the second half … and it showed when we got stops.”
As it turned out, the solid defensive showing in the third quarter also kick-started the Edmonds-Woodway offense. The Warriors scored the first 15 points of the period and all but one of their seven field goals in that stretch were lay-ins, mostly in transition. After the Scots finally scored a field goal midway through the quarter, Edmonds-Woodway ran off another nine unanswered points for a 57-47 lead.
“In the first half Shorecrest was really rolling,” Peterson said. “They were hitting most of their shots and it was impressive, to say the least. Everything they were looking at was going in.
“But when you give up 45 points in the first half, there has to be something that changes,” he said. “In the second half we really dialed in and locked down on defense, and then the points came.”
The big lead was 17 points, 73-56, with just over one minute left in the game, though the Scots were able to trim the deficit in the closing moments.
“Considering we were down 12 (at halftime), that was a very good half of basketball,” Brown said. “(The Warriors) could’ve folded the tent. It was somebody else’s Senior Night, somebody else’s building, you’re down 12 at halftime, and it’d be easy to fold your tent at that point. But the fact they didn’t, I was proud of that.”
Edmonds-Woodway’s David Woodard led all scorers with 23 points, and teammate Jordan Rice chipped in 16. Shorecrest got 20 points from Malcolm Rosier-Butler and 19 from Tobyn Lawson.
At Shorecrest H.S.
Ed.-Woodway20132416—73
Shorecrest212478—60
Edmonds-Woodway—David Woodard 23, Grygoriy Lozynskyy 0, Tre’var Holland 7, Edikal Seare 7, Ali Gaye 8, Jordan Rice 16, Ryan Peterson 6, Noah Becker 6. Shorecrest—Malcolm Rosier-Butler 20, Chris Lee 13, Dagmawe Menelik 0, Steven Lin 0, Tobyn Lawson 19, Aubry Victor 0, Braden Cote 2, Simon Acker 0, Ben Smolen 2, Philip Pepple 4. Records—Edmonds-Woodway 10-1 league, 17-2 overall. Shorecrest 7-4, 11-8.
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