Lynnwood starts fast, holds off Jackson 61-51

Published 10:19 pm Thursday, December 2, 2010

MILL CREEK — For the Lynnwood girls basketball team, Thursday was all about respect. Not only were the Royals trying to convince people that yes, in fact they are legitimately a contender to make a solid run in the Class 3A state tournament, they were doing it against a Jackson team that they hadn’t beaten in anyone’s recent memory.

Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

Lynnwood got off to an absurdly hot start and Jackson was never able to recover as the Royals defeated the Timberwolves 61-51 in a nonleague game at Jackson High School.

“We knew this game would help us gain respect,” said all-league forward Mokun Fajemisin, who had 21 points and 11 rebounds for Lynnwood. “People look at the rankings and I think they’re still flabbergasted that Lynnwood is ranked so high. And I don’t think we’ve lost by less than 15 to Jackson since I’ve been here. So this is really important for us.”

The Royals (2-0), who return four starters from a team that reached last year’s state tournament, showed just how important the game was pretty much as soon as the ball was tipped. Trailing 3-2, Lynnwood went on a 16-0 run that included 3-pointers by Kelsey Parker, Jasmin Edwards and Arsenia Ivanov to lead 18-3. And while Jackson tried to climb back in it, the Royals made 11 of their 16 shots in the first quarter and the Timberwolves missed 15 of their 20 to trail 28-13 after one.

“We started so hot, we shot well and we executed well,” Lynnwood coach Everett Edwards said. “We were really sharing the ball well. We have eight kids who can score and when we’re sharing that ball we’re tough to defend.”

Indeed, six different players scored in the quarter for Lynnwood, which made five 3-pointers in the first eight minutes of the game.

“In our first game we came out and hit shots but tonight when we were missing our shots early, I think a few of the girls got rattled,” Jackson coach Jeannie Boyer said. “And Lynnwood just wasn’t missing and didn’t relent on us and that really put us in a hole.”

To Jackson’s (1-1) credit, it pulled things together and made a game of it thanks to an aggressive defense that helped force 22 Lynnwood turnovers. Of course, it also helped that the Royals could never sustain the shooting they started with, finishing the game at 41.1 percent to Jackson’s 34.4 percent.

Jackson used a 7-0 spurt early in the second quarter to get within 7 and closed the quarter with an 8-0 run that included back-to-back Kelli Kingma jump shots and back-to-back buckets by Sierra Anderson to go into the half down 36-31. Early in the third quarter, Jackson forward Kristin Stoffel scored on back-to-back jumpers to make it 40-37 but Ivanov answered with a 3-pointer and the Timberwolves got no closer than 5 the rest of the way as Lynnwood closed out the quarter with an 8-0 run for a 13-point lead.

“After that start we kind of pulled together and came back and that’s one thing I like about this team, they never think they’re out of a game,” Boyer said. “Lynnwood is a very good team with a lot of talent but I really liked the way we battled.”

Ivanov finished with 13 points for Lynnwood, which opens conference play Saturday against Mountlake Terrace. Kingma and Stoffel each had 15 points and Anderson had 13 for Jackson, which plays at Kamiak Friday.

“We come into games prepared to blow teams out,” Fajemisin said. “We were scoring so quickly at the start that everyone just seemed to be in the flow and that shows how deep we are. It’s not just one player.”

“To come into this gym and beat a team that we haven’t beaten in a long time, and a team that is one of the best teams in their league, it’s huge for our momentum,” Edwards said. “We still have some things to work on, but I’m very happy with what I’ve seen so far.”

At Jackson H.S.

Lynnwood 28 8 19 6 — 61

Jackson 13 18 11 9 — 51

Lynnwood: Jasmin Edwards 8, Izzy Maza 0, Grace Douglas 5, Meghan Cross 3, Casey Evans 2, Mokun Fajemisin 21, Arsenia Ivanov 13, Kelsey Parker 5, Linda Wilson 4. Jackson: Hannah Hicks 2, Hayley Gjertsen 0, Emily Coacher 0, Kelli Kingma 15, Kaitlyn McArthur 0, Megan McArthur 3, Mary Johnson 3, Sierra Anderson 13, Kerra King 0, Kristin Stoffel 15. Records: Lynnwood 2-0, Jackson 1-1.