STANWOOD – Leaping lizards, now he’s a four-figure man.
High-flying Derek Anderson took command at the outset, scored a game-high 21 points – surpassing the 1,000 point mark for his high school career – and the Stanwood Spartans clinched a berth in the postseason with a 74-52 victory over the Oak Harbor Wildcats in a Wesco North Division boys basketball game Tuesday night.
With the triumph, Stanwood (11-3 in league, 13-5 overall) secured a berth in next month’s 4A District 1 tournament.
Oak Harbor (6-7, 8-9) was eliminated from district contention, but the vastly improved Wildcats have come a long way after winning a total of two games in the past two seasons.
The other three North division spots at district were earned by Snohomish (12-1 in league), Marysville-Pilchuck (10-3) and Lake Stevens (10-3 after a victory over Arlington Tuesday).
The seeding order of the four teams is up for grabs.
Anderson came into the game having scored 996 points in three-plus varsity seasons, including 173 during his freshman year at Burlington-Edison.
He came out blazing against Oak Harbor with a pair of personal 7-0 runs in a first quarter that ended with Stanwood in charge with a 25-11 lead.
“Derek was inspired,” Stanwood coach Brian Hunter said. “He’s got that in him. He’s tremendously athletic and just takes over a game when he wants to.
“I’m really proud of the way all of the guys came out,” Hunter said. “Oak Harbor is a team with a lot of talent.”
Anderson hit the 1,000 mark with a mid-range jumper from right of the lane with 4:53 remaining in the first quarter.
Less than a minute later he knocked down a 3-pointer from left of the circle to give the Spartans a 12-4 lead.
Leading by seven with less than two minutes to go in the quarter, in the space of 27 seconds, Anderson dropped in another 3-pointer, took a lob on the baseline and threw down a backboard rattling two-handed jam and made a pair of free throws to make the score 23-9.
“Anderson was in a zone,” Oak Harbor coach Mike Washington said. “You get in his face and he still scores … he’s an animal in a good way.”
“I didn’t think about (surpassing 1,000 points) at all. I was just in the flow of the game,” Anderson said. “It was just coming to me.”
Oak Harbor eventually cut the deficit back to single digits, 48-40, on a Rodrick Rumble (10 points) jumper with 2:05 to play in the third quarter.
But, Anderson scored four points during an 8-1 closing run to boost the margin to 56-41 entering the final period.
Oak Harbor never got closer than that in the final eight minutes, despite the efforts of 6-foot-9 center Caleb Koorn, who led the Wildcats with 19 points. Eric McCardle added 11 points for Oak Harbor, which played without starting wing Dallas Heidt, who was out with an ankle injury.
Stanwood got a lot of help from its bench, including Johnny Struiksma (nine points, three steals) and freshman wing Zach Johnson (eight points, eight rebounds). Starter David Lipinski aided Stanwood’s dominance on the glass with nine rebounds, including five on the offensive end.
“Every guy on our team can play,” Hunter said. “We’ve got a very deep team and it’s going to bode well for us.”
“We don’t go to our bench to sub people in or make people happy,” Hunter continued. “We go to our bench because we think it’s going to help us get something positive.”
Tyler Monroe was everywhere for the Spartans with 15 points, five assists, three steals and four rebounds.
“Tyler gets worked over in practice by our guards,” Hunter said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that can step up.”
“We’re excited to get into districts as step one,” Hunter said. “We want to continue on a roll going into districts.”
But first things first.
“We’ve got a great game coming up on Friday at Snohomish,” Hunter added.
At Stanwood H.S.
Oak Harbor11171311-52
Stanwood25181318-74
Oak Harbor-Koorn 19, McCardle 11, Leach 6, Rumble 10, Lobbestael 4, Bell 2. Stanwood-Monroe 15, K. Schmidt 2, Edlund 2, Williams 2, Struiksma 9, C. Schmidt 4, Anderson 21, Johnson 8, Zweber 5, Lipinski 6. 3-point goals-McCardle 2, Leach 1, Anderson 3. JV result-Stanwood 75, Oak Harbor 24. Records-Oak Harbor 6-7 in league, 8-9 overall. Stanwood 11-3, 13-5.
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