Meadowdale has total team effort
Published 11:20 pm Wednesday, February 20, 2008
LYNNWOOD — If a total team effort truly is the sign of a state championship contender, then mark Meadowdale down as a team to beat in Class 3A.
Then again, the Mavericks could also be tagged as such because of their defense, senior leadership or star power.
Wednesday night in a first-round 3A District 1 contest, all of that and then some was working for Meadowdale. The Mavericks scored the first 10 points of the contest and absolutely rolled past Lynnwood, 73-29, at Meadowdale High School.
It was just the kind of start to districts this sky-reaching team was looking for.
“I was very pleased overall,” said Meadowdale coach Dan Taylor, whose team will face Mount Vernon at 6 p.m. Saturday in a semifinal game. “It was a playoff atmosphere and it was the last home game, so I knew they would come to play tonight.”
Eryn Jones provided the star power for the Mavericks, pouring in a game-high 28 points. Eleven of those came in the third period.
Still, Meadowdale showcased lots of balance, as every player who suited up saw action and eight of those scored points in the first half alone.
Then there was the defense, which forced five turnovers in the first three minutes as the Mavericks were building a 10-0 lead and continued to dominate a Lynnwood offense that failed to score more than 10 points in any one quarter.
“We like to break our quarters into battles and one of our goals is to hold the opponent to less than 10 points in a quarter. And we did that in all but one quarter tonight,” Taylor said. “We wanted to control the tempo and we felt like we did that for the most part. We almost cut in half what they scored against us the last time we played them.”
After Jones, Hanna Fjortoft finished with nine points, Alli Streit had eight and Julia Fjortoft seven.
Jones picked up the first points of the game, then got a jump shot minutes later to make it 8-0. Lynnwood finally got on the board on a free throw from Alanna Eddy with two minutes, 46 seconds to go in the first period. That made it 10-1 and it was 14-6 at the end of the first quarter.
The Royals got within 16-10 early in the second, before Meadowdale poured it on. A field goal by Danica Coronacion started a series of 14 unanswered points that put the Mavericks on top 30-10 and they went into halftime comfortably on top, 35-14.
Jones scored 14 in the first half, then added 11 more in the third quarter, including five during another 9-0 Meadowdale run. The score was 55-24 going into the fourth period.
From the start, the Mavericks forced nearly everything to go their way. Still, they realize the games upcoming are likely to be much different.
“Every game is going to be tough. We need to prepare for every one of them the same,” Jones said. “We can’t look at teams’ records, because every team doesn’t want to lose right now.”
Lynnwood, which was led by six points apiece from Kari Hella and Eddy, faces Shorecrest at noon Saturday.
At Meadowdale H.S.
Lynnwood68105—29
Meadowdale14212018—73
Lynnwood — Eddy 6, Hella 6, A. Hill 5, Parker 4, Anthony 3, Dill 2, Johnsen 2, Hill 1. Meadowdale — Jones 28, H. Fjortoft 9, Streit 8, J. Fjortoft 7, Landa 6, Molitor 5, Carlow 4, O’Neill 3, Coronacion 2, Beyer 2, Zickefoose. 3-point goals — Hella 2, O’Neill 1, Jones 1, H. Fjortoft 1, J. Fjortoft 1. Records — Meadowdale 20-3. Lynnwood 4-19.
