Mistakes derail Lake Stevens boys

Published 11:09 pm Wednesday, March 3, 2010

TACOMA — With an early 13-6 lead, the outlook was promising for the Lake Stevens Vikings in their 4A state boys basketball tournament opener against Eastlake.

Then, in a flurry of turnovers, errant shots and other miscues, the game’s momentum and ultimately the game’s outcome slipped away.

By a surprisingly one-sided margin, Lake Stevens saw its dream of a state championship vanish on Wednesday night in a 69-48 loss to Eastlake. The Vikings were seemingly on track early, but by the end nothing could or would go right.

“It certainly wasn’t the way we wanted to play or expected to play or have been playing,” said a disappointed Lake Stevens head coach Mark Hein, whose team had won four straight, eight of its last nine, and the Western Conference North (tie) and District 1 titles.

“I don’t know if it was nerves or putting too much pressure on ourselves,” he said. “Obviously (Eastlake) had some things to do with it. But this was just not anywhere close to the performance we wanted to have.”

Of particular significance was a total of 22 turnovers for Lake Stevens. Nine of those came in the second quarter as the Vikings watched a four-point lead turn into a five-point halftime deficit.

“They have a nice press, but we beat it,” Hein said. “But then we kind of got in a rush instead of really of taking advantage of the numeric advantage we had. Guys were working hard, but we weren’t working very intelligently at times. … (The second quarter) was definitely a stretch that hurt us.”

And the 22 turnovers, he added, “are, for us, really uncharacteristic. That in and of itself was, I think, a huge difference in the game. We just didn’t execute very well.”

Forward Shane Kaska had five points and guard Arvid Isaksen added four in the early minutes as Lake Stevens pushed to a seven-point lead. But Eastlake, a Sammamish school that represents the KingCo Conference, rallied with a 9-2 run to tie the score early in the second period.

The game see-sawed for the next few minutes and Lake Stevens led 24-22 with 1:26 left before halftime when the Wolves began to take the game in hand.

Eastlake closed the quarter with seven straight points for a 29-24 halftime edge. Then, after Lake Stevens scored the first basket of the third quarter, the Wolves went on another 9-0 run for a 38-26 lead.

From the late first quarter to the early third quarter, then, Eastlake outscored Lake Stevens 32-13. And the Wolves didn’t stop there, stretching the lead to 20 points, 54-34, heading into the final period.

The deficit never dropped below 16 points in the remaining minutes.

Along with the turnover total, the Vikings clearly stumbled in other areas. Lake Stevens attempted 17 3-pointers, but made just two, a lowly 11.8 percentage. Also, the team was just 4-for-10 (40.0 percent) at the free throw line. Lastly, the Vikings gave up 13 offensive rebounds, leading to a 12-3 Eastlake advantage in second-chance points.

“I felt like we were prepared for what they wanted to do,” Hein said. “But we really struggled in a lot of phases of the game.”

Lake Stevens drops into the loser’s bracket, where it faces Mead in a loser-out game today at 2 p.m. The Vikings are one loss away from ending their season, but can still claim fifth place with wins today, Friday and Saturday.

“We still have an opportunity to do some things, so it’s important that we get over this emotionally,” Hein said. “I know these guys are disappointed right now, as am I, but I trust they’ll be able to bounce back.

“We had some high aspirations, and one of those aspirations is to come home with a trophy,” he said. “That’s still within our realm, so we need to focus on that.”

At Tacoma Dome

Eastlake11182515—69

Lake Stevens1591014—48

Eastlake — Iraola 7, Pericin 12, Anas Elkugia 10, Lester 8, Abdu Elkugia 2, Sikma 2, Russo 21, Nelson 3, Hanson 4. Lake Stevens — Israel 2, Isaksen 7, Finley 2, Schneider 8, Hanson 6, Maw 12, Kaska 11. 3-point goals — Pericin 2, Iraola 1, Russo 1, Maw 1, Kaska 1. Records — Eastlake is 18-8. Lake Stevens is 18-6.