Edmonds-Woodway boys basketball hangs on in Round of 12

Published 4:28 pm Wednesday, March 4, 2026

TACOMA — The No. 11 Edmonds-Woodway boys basketball team (24-3) may have entered the Class 3A State Tournament as an underdog, but the Warriors showed their experience in a 49-46 round of 12 thriller against No. 6 Prairie (18-6) on Wednesday morning.

Falling in the 9 a.m. slot, the Warriors found no shortage of energy to start the day at the Tacoma Dome. E-W racked up 41 rebounds to the Falcons’ 29, and hauled in 18 offensive boards to help hold onto a small lead late.

In a game where the teams shot a combined 34%, that rebounding made the difference, as the Warriors ate up two minutes of game clock in just two possessions at one point.

The win placed the Warriors in the quarterfinals for a Thursday clash with No. 5 Bellarmine Prep.

Senior DJ Karl led the Warriors with 17 points and drew five fouls.

“Mentally, you just gotta outwork the other team,” Karl said of what it took to win on Wednesday. “I think we did that pretty well. Once we got those offensive rebounds, we got extra possession, we got extra time off the clock, we could work with that.”

Of course, the Warriors know what it takes to succeed in the state tournament. Edmonds-Woodway won three games in last year’s tournament before going down to Rainier Beach in the title game.

That experience made a world of difference as the team checked into the same hotel it used in 2025, waking up at 6 a.m. for a 9 a.m. tip-off and getting just 15 minutes to warm up before the biggest game of the year.

“The kids aren’t phased by it,” head coach Tyler Geving said of the nonstop atmosphere of the state tournament.

William Alseth certainly wasn’t phased, as the senior racked up 12 points and 10 rebounds while guarding nearly every position. Senior Andreas Simonsen chipped in nine points and five rebounds, drawing five fouls in the game. Grant Williams (5) and Julian Gray (6) combined for 11 rebounds as well.

It was a back-and-forth first half as the teams started off a day of round of 12 action with a gritty defensive outing. As is usually the case with the long sightlines of the Tacoma Dome, both teams struggled to adjust their eyes for 3-point shooting.

The result was a 0-for-6 first half from beyond the arc for E-W. Instead of settling from the wing, Karl got to work off the triple threat.

“Your depth perception is off, so I started attacking the rim, got my rhythm going and then I started shooting from 3,” Karl said.

Indeed, the Warriors prioritized easy looks with Alseth finding Gray for an easy basket to open the scoring, while Karl stole an inbounds pass and laid it in to make it 4-0 by the time a minute had passed.

The Falcons responded with a 7-0 run, as star big man Carson Morningstar (10 points, 10 rebounds) got to his spot in the paint. Morningstar, a 6-foot-8 senior, broke the Vancouver-based program’s all-time scoring mark recently. With no E-W player quite as large as Morningstar, Geving threw an assortment of assignments at him. 6-foot-7 senior Harris Dobson (five points) played 13 minutes while Gray and Alseth took turns trying to deny the ball.

“(Dobson), I want to give a little shoutout to him. He’s hardly played all year, and we said, ‘Dude, you got to be ready to go … you’re going to play this game,’” Geving said.

Still, Morningstar found the rim on a putback to end the quarter as Prairie led 14-10 early.

Falcons guard Jamir Jones, who led the team with 14 points, got involved early in the second with some drawn free throws close to the rim. Williams responded for E-W, but Jones went coast-to-coast immediately to extend the lead back to five.

Then came a signature sequence for Alseth, who had a few by the game’s end. The 6-foot-5 forward converted a reverse layup with his left hand, then denied Morningstar the ball in the post on the other end. After fouling the big man, Alseth deterred a layup try on the next possession by Benjamin Nkansah and made a spinning layup going the other way.

Moments later, he took an elbow from Morningstar to draw an offensive foul.

After a jump-stop layup from Williams, the Warriors trailed 25-23 at the half as Prairie’s Tavin Timperely’s (11 points) two 3s were the only makes from beyond the arc so far.

The Warriors, who had been responsible with the ball so far, came out with two early turnovers.

Ever the experienced squad, Edmonds-Woodway stuck with it and kept attacking the Falcons. Gray ripped a would-be defensive rebound away from Morningstar to give his team another chance, but caught some contact as he began to bleed from his temple.

Gray returned to the game with a head bandage, but E-W was galvanized. Karl forced another inbounding turnover and made a floater as his jab step from either wing gave Prairie’s defense fits all morning.

The Warriors hung around long enough for a barrage at the end of the third quarter, as Gray blocked a shot to set up a Simonsen runner on the other end. Karl, who finished with three steals, nabbed the ball again, and Alseth found Simonsen for a long 2-pointer as the Warriors closed the third on an 8-1 run for a three-point lead.

Morningstar converted a fall-away shot to open the fourth, but Karl responded with a much-needed catch-and-shoot triple from the right wing on a 1-for-12 night from beyond for the Warriors.

Clinging to a two-point lead with around six minutes to play, Alseth got an offensive rebound, leading E-W to reset. After a long offensive sequence, Karl got another offensive rebound, which led to a Gray miss as the shot clock expired. The ball last touched Prairie as the Falcons called a timeout. Coming out of the short break, Karl ended the back-breaking possession with a pull-up jumper.

After more o-boards on the next possession, Karl used his jab step to get to the rim again as the clock neared four minutes left.

“Every possession is big … offensive rebounds are huge,” Geving said of his team’s effort in extending possessions.

But a triple from Timperley and a back-door feed from Morningstar to Jones gave Prairie a one-point lead, all of a sudden.

“I was, I don’t want to say worried, but when they took the lead a little bit, I felt like we were up four and they hit a couple tough shots (to go ahead). Credit to them, they were big-time shots,” Geving said.

Alseth had the game in his hands down two with two minutes left in the season. He pumped from 3-point range, getting his man to bite on the right wing, and attacked the rim to draw a foul.

Sightlines and all, he converted both free throws in a pressure-filled moment to tie it before Simonsen split a pair. Clinging to a one-point lead as the game clock crept under one minute, Simonsen reset the offense at the top of the key.

Alseth showed for the ball on the left elbow, quickly spinning left after getting it and finishing with his right hand.

A stop, courtesy of some strong help-side defense from Gray, put the game to bed.

Geving’s squad didn’t spend too much time celebrating with another 9 a.m. tip-off looming.

“We’ll be ready, 9 a.m., same routine,” Geving said.

The Warriors came into this tournament as the runners-up. But the seed they received, perhaps on account of qualifying through the district consolation bracket, may have been a blessing. Carrying a No. 11 seed throughout this process is freeing, in a sense, for Karl.

“It’s more fun,” Karl said. “Being an underdog, you have no expectations, so a lot less pressure. It’s less embarrassing if you lose, but we’re not going to.”