Stanwood refuses to lose

Published 11:54 am Wednesday, January 20, 2010

LAKE STEVENS — With so much going wrong in the final minutes, the Stanwood Spartans managed to keep their cool.

Even if their coach barely could.

And because they stayed calm under pressure, the Spartans overcame a four-point deficit in the final 30 seconds Tuesday night to beat first-place Lake Stevens 64-63. Kale Schmidt hit the game-winning 3-pointer with eight seconds remaining in the game to stun a packed gym filled with Vikings fans.

During a second half that featured 12 lead changes and four ties in the final 12 minutes, Schmidt’s shot provided the winning margin and capped a rally from a 62-58 hole seconds earlier.

Stanwood coach Zach Ward struggled to keep his composure as well as his players did after an intentional foul was called with Lake Stevens leading by one point with 45.8 seconds to go. Two Vikings’ possessions and two fouls later, Ward had to turn his back to avoid getting himself in trouble with the refs.

Down four, Austin Cook scored on a layin to make it a two-point game with 24.4 seconds to play. After a foul, the Vikings made one of two to take a three-point lead. The Spartans tried to go for a quick two points, but Mike McCune was fouled with 13.4 seconds on the clock. He made the first free throw but missed the second. The senior forward more than made up for the miss, however, grabbing his own rebound and firing a quick pass out to Schmidt, who drained the winning 3. It was the first field goal in the second half for Schmidt, who scored 14 point in the first half.

The Vikings were unable to get off a final shot.

“I thought our kids really kept their head well,” Ward said. “Things didn’t go super good for us down the stretch and it would have been easy to fold up. We lost a couple of games like that early in the year, and I’ve preached to them, ‘You’ve just got to hang in there and hang in there’— and sometimes I need to tell myself that too — and they did it. The game’s never over. It was crazy. Crazy.”

In a matchup of Wesco North’s top two teams, Stanwood (8-6 overall, 8-2 league) cut Lake Steven’s (10-4, 9-1) division lead down to one game. The victory was the fifth in a row for Stanwood after starting the season 3-6. That slow start included a nine-point loss at home to Lake Stevens last month.

“That was a huge basketball game,” Schmidt said. “They came into our place and got us, and we knew we had to come and get them back at their place if we were going to have any chance at first place, and we did that. Hopefully that’ll start something and we can go on a streak here.”

And while Schmidt was the obvious hero for hitting the game-winner, he and his coach were quick to give praise to McCune for the clutch rebound and assists.

“Mike’s whole game tonight — we needed a spark off the bench, they were hurting us on the boards — and he brought it,” Ward said. “… He was huge for us tonight. The energy he brought for us was big. We needed it and he brought it.”

Joining Schmidt in double-figure scoring were Zack Johnson, who finished with game highs of 21 points and 14 rebounds, and Drew Haugstad, who at one point made four straight 3s in the second half and finished with 13 points.

Shane Kaska led Lake Stevens with 19 points, Aaron Maw had 18, and Arvid Isaksen had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

At Lake Stevens H.S.

Stanwood13141918—64

Lake Stevens13112019—63

Stanwood — Garcea 0, Jamieson 0, Haugstad 13, Reinecke 2, Schmidt 19, Cook 3, Johnson 21, McCune 5, Taylor 1. Lake Stevens — Israel 6, Isaksen 10, Schneider 2, Hanson 6, Maw 18, J. Dodge 2, Kaska 19, Vandergrift 0. 3-point goals — Haugstad 4, Schmidt 4, Israel 2, Isaksen 2, Maw 2, Kaska 1. Records — Stanwood 8-2 league, 8-6 overall. Lake Stevens 9-1, 10-4.

Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com.