Lincoln’s Holt a winner off the court as well

Published 9:00 pm Friday, March 8, 2002

By Aaron Coe

Herald Writer

TACOMA – For Lincoln’s Justin Holt, there are harder things in life than winning state high school basketball championships.

After the star forward scored 12 points to help knock off Stanwood 72-64 in a Class 4A quarterfinal Friday, Holt and his fellow Abes will try for their second straight title today. The amazing feat would continue Holt’s even more amazing turnaround from where he was just three years ago.

Holt is not even sure who he was back then.

He wasn’t going to school much as a freshman and was not eligible to play basketball. There was no male influence in his life. And his mother battled drug addiction and domestic violence.

He wandered the streets of Tacoma because he was not sure what else to do.

These days, he’s a solid student and one of the state’s best basketball players.

Holt, a 6-foot-7 forward, took four summer classes to get back on track after missing so much as a ninth-grader. His play on the court and new-found desire in the classroom earned Holt a scholarship to play basketball at Oregon State.

“I’m still in awe,” said Holt, who contributed 21 points and five rebounds in just 22 foul-troubled minutes against the Spartans. “My life in basketball has been a joy ride, and I’m just enjoying it all the way.”

Lincoln coach Tim Kelly wasn’t sure what to make of his future star when Holt joined the basketball team as a freshman. He saw the raw talent, but he also saw a kid with a lot of attitude and very little experience with organized basketball.

Even Kelly is amazed when he thinks about the player and person Holt has become.

“He has come way, way, way further than I would have thought,” Kelly said. “Physically he had the talent, but he’s matured mentally so much. He wanted to be the best basketball player he could be, and that’s driven him to be a good student.”

Holt, who averages 23 points and 10 rebounds this season, played much of Friday’s game against Stanwood’s Marcus Steele.

The matchup was at times detrimental to both players.

Both are prolific scorers, and both were in foul trouble for much of the game as they tried to shut each other down. Steele, who played with Holt on a Friends of Hoop team the summer before they were juniors, finished with 17 points and nine rebounds before fouling out with just over a minute remaining.

Just before Friday’s tipoff, the friendly rivals let each other know it wasn’t going to be easy.

“He said, ‘Sorry man, I’m gonna have to take it tough to you tonight,’” said Steele, who chuckled after Holt’s pre-game comment. “I knew we had to take it to him. That was the game plan, and it worked for a while.”

It worked so well, that Holt was called for his third of five allotted fouls with 1:39 remaining in the first quarter. All three fouls were committed against Steele near the basket and forced Holt to the bench for the remainder of the half.

The Spartans, however, failed to take advantage of Holt’s absence. Lincoln used the outside shot to increase an 11-point lead at the time Holt departed to an advantage of 13 at halftime.

“I felt that when he was out of the game, we needed to cut it to five or six,” Stanwood coach Nate DuChesne said. “I was disappointed that we weren’t able to do that.”

Steele kept Holt under control in the third, but had to be switched over to another Abe after getting into foul trouble of his own.

That’s when Holt began displaying the versatility that makes him the complete package.

It seemed that every time Stanwood got close, Holt made the plays that kept Lincoln in the lead. When Shaun Messerli’s 3-point shot pulled Stanwood within two points in the middle of the fourth, Holt answered with a layup 18 seconds later.

He scored six points in the final 2:15, including a steal of a Stanwood pass and a dunk on the other end to put his team up 67-57 with two minutes remaining.

“He’s just such a versatile player,” said Steele, a 6-foot-6 forward who will play for Seattle University next season. “He can shoot it. He can take you on a drive. He can post you up. He can do about anything.”

For the last two seasons, Holt has done everything he could to make himself better.

On the basketball court and in life.