Top-ranked Lynnwood routs Edmonds-Woodway

Published 11:31 pm Friday, January 9, 2015

BOTHELL — The Edmonds-Woodway girls basketball team is a perfect 10-0 when facing teams not ranked No. 1 in the state.

After Friday’s 80-47 loss to Lynnwood, the Warriors are 0-2 against teams that are.

Junior Mikayla Pivec had a career-high 33 points to go along with 16 rebounds to lead the Royals, who improved to 3-0 in the Wesco 3A South and 10-0 overall.

“She played an all-around game for us,” Lynnwood head coach Everett Edwards said. “I didn’t realize she had 33, but we really needed and wanted every single point.”

The final score doesn’t indicate it, but there were points during the game where Edmonds-Woodway was extremely competitive. There were others where Lynnwood was dominant. Like a 57-second stretch in the fourth quarter where the Royals went on a 10-0 run.

“They kept getting those five- and 10-point runs and if we’re only scoring a three here and there, it’s really hard,” Edmonds-Woodway head coach Rebekah Wells said.

The Warriors relied on their outside shot in the first half, which worked in the game’s opening minutes as they made two of their first three and trailed by one at 7-6. Edmonds-Woodway couldn’t sustain its quick start and Lynnwood quickly began to build a lead when the Warriors’ shots started to falter.

The Royals led 23-9 after the first quarter and extended that to 41-23 at halftime. The Warriors first field goal that wasn’t a 3-pointer didn’t come until 4:40 remaining in the second quarter.

“We just kept (shooting) the 3s because they wanted to get ahead,” Wells said. “They were a little too anxious. We didn’t get it inside at all until the second half and you can’t do that against this team. It’s not going to work.”

Despite leading by 18 at halftime, Edwards stressed the importance of starting strong in the third quarter. He and his team had watched the Warriors erase a 10-point deficit in the second half of Edmonds-Woodway’s overtime win over fifth-ranked Arlington on Wednesday.

“We were at the game where Edmonds-Woodway played Arlington the other night and Arlington went in up 10 points at the half and we knew they were going to make a run, so we knew the third quarter was going to be good for us to get off to a good start and we didn’t get off to the best start in the third quarter,” Edwards said.

Despite his warnings, Edmonds-Woodway started strong in the third quarter, scoring four of the first six points. A frustrated Edwards called a timeout to reiterate the message he had told his team at halftime.

This time it worked.

The Royals pushed the lead back up to 26 by the end of the third quarter. Pivec had 27 of her 33 points in the first three quarters.

“My teammates made a lot of nice passes to me and set me up,” she said. “My shot was falling today and it ended up working out.”

At Lynnwood H.S.

Edmonds-Woodway 9 14 11 13 —47

Lynnwood 23 18 19 20 —80

Edmonds-Woodway—Kate Wooley 0, Allie Browning 3, Mady Burdett 3, Natalie Kasper 10, Claire Fyfe 2, Keitra Jones 0, Moni Jackson 11, Lea Bakken 0, Missy Peterson 18. Lynnwood—Madison Eyer 0, Reilly Walsh 6, Monty Cooper 12, Jordyn Edwards 7, Mikayla Pivec 33, Kelsey Rogers 16, Kaprice Boston 6, Taylor Fahey 0, Dani Hayes 0. 3-point goals—Peterson 2, Kasper 2, Jackson 3, Burdett 1, Browning 1, Edwards 1, Pivec 1, Cooper 1. Records—Edmonds-Woodway 3-1 league, 10-2 overall. Lynnwood 3-0, 10-0.