Edmonds-Woodway boys lose to top 2A squad

Published 9:47 pm Tuesday, December 27, 2016

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — The Edmonds-Woodway boys basketball team was hit hard by turnover this offseason.

David Woodard, Jordan Rice and Brady Edwards graduated. Tre’var Holland transferred to Nathan Hale. Ali Gaye, an NCAA Division-I football prospect, suffered an injury on the gridiron that’s ended his high school basketball career.

In all, the Warriors lost four of their five starters from last season’s squad, which finished 21-3 and won 16 consecutive games before falling to eventual Class 3A state runner-up O’Dea in the state regional round.

“We lost some good leadership, some really good players,” E-W coach Robert Brown said. “We’ve got some good players (this year, but) they’re still learning how to be that leading man on the varsity court and where they fit. … We’re a work in progress. (Most of them don’t) have that varsity experience, so that’s what we’re trying to battle through.”

Those work-in-progress Warriors showed both flashes of potential and room for improvement Tuesday afternoon during a 68-62 non-league loss to Class 2A state contender North Kitsap in the Mountlake Terrace Holiday Tournament at Mountlake Terrace High School. Edmonds-Woodway (6-2) will face Ferndale at 3 p.m. Wednesday in the tournament’s second and final day.

“We were OK,” Brown said. “The effort was there; we just didn’t make shots. Our formula is to get up more shots than the other team, and we had about 15 or 20 more shots than they did. But we just couldn’t make shots.”

The game got off to a blistering start, with both teams employing a full-court press for much of the first quarter. The teams went up and down the court at a frantic pace, trading fast break after fast break.

Yet while the up-tempo pace continued throughout the game, North Kitsap’s halfcourt 2-3 zone defense ultimately slowed down the Warriors’ run-and-gun offense just enough.

“It slowed our tempo,” Brown said. “It’s hard for us to practice against zone, because we press so much that that’s what we’re working on in practice. … It made the kids second-guess themselves a little bit, because we haven’t seen it enough yet to really be good against it.”

And while the Warriors’ game-long full-court press forced its share of turnovers, North Kitsap (7-2) expertly exploited the heavy pressure numerous times for transition baskets.

“Defensively, we just didn’t get back,” E-W senior guard Keaton McKay said. “Besides that, I think we did OK. We just weren’t talking and didn’t get back.”

McKay scored 13 of the Warriors’ first 15 points, guiding E-W to a 19-13 lead late in the first quarter. McKay, a junior varsity player for most of last season, finished with a game-high 17 points and four 3-pointers to continue his strong start to the season.

“He’s waited three years for this opportunity and he’s embracing it. … He’s become a good leader in his fourth year, and I just love what he’s doing,” Brown said. “He’s playing with a lot of maturity and we just need him to keep going with that.”

North Kitsap senior Kohlten Barringer-Mahitka led the Vikings with 16 points, including nine in the first quarter. Kai Warren added 15 points for North Kitsap, scoring 11 in the second quarter to help the Vikings build a 37-34 halftime lead.

North Kitsap extended its advantage on several occasions, but the Warriors fought back each time.

After the Vikings built an eight-point lead late in the third quarter, E-W junior guard Michael Epoch hit a pair of 3-pointers to cut the deficit to 50-48 entering the final period. And after the Vikings stretched the margin to six points later in the fourth, E-W senior forward Ryan Peterson made back-to-back putback buckets to slice the deficit to 60-58.

Soon after that, E-W junior guard Uchenna Acholonu cut for a backdoor lay-in that trimmed the margin to 63-60 with about 1:20 remaining. But Barringer-Mahitka answered with a back-breaking 3-pointer on the following possession to help seal the victory for North Kitsap.

“(They have) lots of length, they’re athletic and they’re gritty,” Brown said of the Vikings. “I like the way they play, I really do. … I think you’ll probably see them going into February, early March.”

As for the Warriors, Brown said the key will be for his largely inexperienced team to continue developing confidence on the court.

“I think it’s always (about) getting the guys comfortable, so that they can play as fast and confident as they can — not second-guessing themselves,” Brown said. “I think we’re getting to that point. That’s really what we’re working on.”