Stingy Royals hold off Panthers 45-28 in defensive battle

Published 10:27 pm Wednesday, December 10, 2014

BOTHELL — For 16 minutes, the Lynnwood girls basketball team got all it could handle from a hungry Snohomish team that had lost its first two games of the season.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, they needed another 16.

Lynnwood held the Panthers to just nine points after halftime and turned a close game into a blowout, winning 45-28 on Wednesday.

“I expected us to play a little bit better offensively and execute a little bit better than we did, but it was the first time we’ve faced adversity and that’s the reason we scheduled tough non-league games,” Lynnwood head coach Everett Edwards said. “We faced that adversity in the first quarter and in the first half and at halftime we made a few adjustments and the girls came out and executed offensively and picked up their intensity on defense and did a great job that way.”

The Royals had won their first two games by 54 and 67 points respectively. The Panthers made it clear early that Lynnwood wasn’t going to run away with another one.

In most games, the Royals use their full-court pressure defense to build an early lead — that strategy didn’t work against the Panthers. Four minutes into the game Snohomish led 2-1 and it was clear the game would be a defensive battle.

“Sometimes it’s not easy to score buckets if you can’t get easy transition buckets and turn them over,” Edwards said. “It’s the first time we’ve faced a challenge this defensively where we couldn’t do whatever we wanted to do and we had to execute. It was great to go through that and have to fight the fight and execute offensively to score points.”

At the end of the first quarter, the two teams were tied at 7-7 and Snohomish’s Madeline Smith led all scorers with five points.

The Royals scored five of the first seven points in the second quarter to take a three-point lead before the two teams exchanged runs. Snohomish’s 6-0 run gave the Panthers a 15-12 lead, but the Royals answered with a 9-1 run that gave them a five-point advantage, the biggest for either team to that point in the game.

Just when it looked like Lynnwood had all the momentum going into halftime, Smith banked in a 3-pointer from half court to cut the Royals lead to two at 21-19.

But the Panthers weren’t able to capitalize in the third quarter. Lynnwood outscored the Panthers 13-5 in the quarter, which started with an 11-1 Royal run.

“If anything, I felt good about the way we closed out the (second) quarter,” Edwards said. “(Smith’s half-court shot) just made us amp up our intensity level because we were only up two points after she banks in that three.”

The Royals gameplan against Smith was simple.

“To not let her touch the ball,” Edwards said. “That was our game plan … Our number one strategy was to take away Smith. She’s a great player and she’s killed us the last couple of years, so we wanted to have somebody else beat us.”

Smith scored a game-high 19 points, but just six of those came in the second half. Unable to get Smith going, the Panthers never threatened a comeback in the fourth quarter.

With an Oregon State assistant coach on hand to watch her play, Lynnwood junior Mikayla Pivec led the Royals with 15 points, nine of which came in the second half.

“She’s just an effort player,” Edwards said. “We needed all of it tonight.”

At Lynnwood H.S.

Snohomish 7 12 5 4 — 28

Lynnwood 7 14 13 11 — 45

Snohomish—Katie Brandvold 0, Emily Preach 0, Darian Rielly 0, Shaylee Harwood 0, Madison Pollock 4, Madeline Smith 19, Ireland Baus 0, Bernadette Beeman 2, Ellie Flitsch 3. Lynnwood—Madison Eyer 0, Reilly Walsh 9, Monty Cooper 6, Jordyn Edwards 10, Mikayla Pivec 15, Sarah Grant 0, Kelsey Rogers 0, Kaprice Boston 2, Taylor Fahey 0, Dani Hayes 3. 3-point goals—Smith 1, Hayes 1, Cooper 1, Walsh 1, Edwards 2. Records—Snohomish 0-3, Lynnwood 3-0.