Edmonds-Woodway boys basketball enters playoffs on high note
Published 11:30 pm Tuesday, February 4, 2025
SHORELINE – By the time the second half of the Edmonds-Woodway boys’ basketball game against Shorewood started, the Warriors had taken a 40-17 lead. Looking primed to close out the regular season with a win, Edmonds-Woodway could have eased off the gas and strolled into the postseason.
However, after the first few possessions of the third quarter resulted in turnovers, Warriors coach Tyler Geving called a timeout just 1:18 into the frame. His team was leading by 20, but you wouldn’t know it looking at the intensity in the huddle.
That focus on playing hard through the entire 32 minutes allowed Edmonds-Woodway (20-1, 11-1) to keep Shorewood (13-8, 8-4) at a distance, winning 63-43 and securing their first Wesco 3A/2A South title since 2016.
“I think we had a vision and a goal of, ‘Hey, let’s win league, let’s get to state,’ and we still got a lot of steps ahead of us,” Geving said. “We set the bar high for the kids, so I’m super proud of them, but it doesn’t mean we’ve accomplished anything yet.”
The Warriors’ attitude towards the season is reflective of that during the game Tuesday. In the next Shorewood possession out of the timeout at 1:18, Geving shouted at his players to “get a stop,” but Stormrays sophomore Thomas Moles (15 points) drove in for a layup.
Edmonds-Woodway had scored just two more points by the 3:29 mark, when Moles poked the ball out for a steal and fast-break layup at the other end. The Warriors still led by 16, but Geving called another timeout. The frustration had trickled down to the players; senior Cam Hiatt, who scored a game-high 20 points, yelled “Come on!” as the team gathered around again.
“There’s a certain standard that we want to play with at all times,” Hiatt said. “And we don’t dip below that, and I think [Geving] noticed it, I think I noticed it, that we walked out there and we were kind of flat. We’re trying to re-establish that, that we play Edmonds-Woodway basketball all the time.”
Hiatt took it upon himself to get his team back on their game. Immediately following the second timeout, he connected on a corner 3. In the next possession, the Dartmouth commit swished a jumper to help the Warriors regain control. By the end of the third quarter, Edmonds-Woodway remained comfortably ahead 51-32.
“More than anything it’s leading by example,” Hiatt said. “If you don’t lead by example, no one’s going to believe what you’re saying. So you got to go out there and you got to live that, and you gotta play that way, and you got to show your teammates that this is how we do it.”
The Warriors built up their lead in the first quarter by playing strong defense, particularly Hiatt and junior Julian Gray (11 points) forcing the Stormrays into turnovers (seven in the first half, 13 total), grabbing rebounds and utilizing smart ball movement to lead to points at the other end.
A 12-1 lead just three minutes in ballooned to 25-8 to end the first quarter. It wasn’t perfect the whole way, but Edmonds-Woodway ended their regular season with a much-needed confidence boost after they followed up their first and only loss of the season to Shorecrest (74-52 on Jan. 28) with close wins against Mountlake Terrace (59-54 on Jan. 30) and Meadowdale (62-54 on Feb. 1).
“I don’t feel like we’ve really played well the last couple games,” Geving said. “We’ve had a lot of lapses in the second half, but that’s credit to the other teams. They wanted to get a little revenge against the best team in the league, so it just felt good. It felt like we finally played a complete game.”
With 20 wins and a league title, the Warriors put together a complete regular season, but just as they weren’t satisfied simply holding a big second-half lead on Tuesday, they won’t be satisfied just walking into Monroe High School on Thursday when they take on the North 3A/2A champion Bearcats (17-2) in their Wesco 3A crossover game. There’s more to be done.
