EDMONDS — Despite a season that saw Edmonds-Woodway boys basketball (14-0 overall, 6-0 league) start perfect and beat opponents by an average of nearly 28 points, the Warriors found themselves facing a challenger to their Wesco 3A/2A South lead on Tuesday night. League opponent Shorewood (9-6, 4-2) came to town fresh off three-straight wins, hoping to push the streak to four with their biggest victory of the season.
That upset bid was not to be, as the visiting Stormrays turned the ball over seven times in the first quarter (13 total) and closed the second half on the wrong side of a five-minute, 10-2 run. The Warriors’ early fullcourt press exposed a key weakness of the Stormrays: ball handling.
Shorewood would clean up the turnover issues by making clean passes to beat the trap in the second half, but E-W is proving to be a deft closer this season. The Warriors forced the Stormrays to eat up well over half of their shot clock on most possessions, stunting a comeback en route to a 53-35 win.
Edmonds-Woodway’s star duo of senior Cam Hiatt (19 points, five rebounds) and junior William Alseth (20 points, 6 of 10 free throws) found creative ways to score and create space all night. Though the 53-point performance wasn’t their best offensively, the Warriors outrebounded the Stormrays 23-14. Group rebounding from the likes of E-W senior Luke Boland (game-high six rebounds) and others limited easy second-chance opportunities.
“Our goal was to outrebound them. They’re a really good team at going for offensive rebounds, so we just had to box out and rebound,” Alseth said.
The denial of rebounding opportunities caused Shorewood’s third sub-40-point outing of the season. Instead of getting easy putbacks, the Stormrays relied on junior Jaden Marlow’s 16 second-half points to fuel them late. Marlow wants to see his team play more naturally going forward.
“We know our offense isn’t our greatest strength, but we just gotta keep working,” said Marlow, having accounted for over half of his team’s 23 second-half points by mostly working alone in the post. “We were acting too much like robots in this game, we needed to start driving a little more and kicking it.”
Though Shorewood found sophomore shooters Yuto Allison and Max Nguyen for early 3-pointers, the Stormrays managed just six assists on 14 makes.
Edmonds-Woodway, on the other hand, played outside-in for the most part — the Warriors generated a healthy amount of offense from simple backdoor cuts. E-W finished with 13 assists on 20 makes and rarely had a single player handle the ball for more than five seconds.
Despite the early mistakes, Shorewood head coach Joey Petschl was proud of how his team executed his game plan.
“Our guys did exactly what I told them to do. I didn’t want to make this a track meet like other teams have tried, I wanted to stay within ourselves,” Petschl said. “This game wasn’t too big for us, I know that.”
Petschl’s squad looked the part at times, holding Edmonds-Woodway’s explosive transition attack to under 30 points in each half and forcing 10 turnovers on the night. Limiting their own turnovers, especially early in games, was one of Petschl’s biggest takeaways.
“Against a good team like this, you just can’t turn the ball over. It’s hard to get those points back,” Petschl said. “I don’t think we’re an offensive juggernaut, I think we’re a really good defensive team.”
As Shorewood prepares to try to make a late-season run, Edmonds-Woodway appears to be in position for a state tournament berth at 14-0. A state tournament would mean facing larger teams that play at a similar pace to the Warriors.
The prospect doesn’t bother the 6-foot-5-inch Alseth or the 6-foot-4-inch Hiatt.
“You can outhustle those taller guys and still rebound and be in better position,” Alseth said. “I think we can win it all.”
“I’m super confident,” Hiatt said of his team’s chances to win the league first. “I’ll go to battle with these guys over anybody against anybody.”
The Warriors have plenty of battles left in store. With league rival Shorecrest downing Meadowdale to stay one game back, Edmonds-Woodway seems to be on a collision course with another state hopeful when they meet on Jan. 28.
For now, the Warriors will look to keep their record unblemished when they face Lynnwood on Friday night at home. The Stormrays will also return on Friday night as they prepare to host Archbishop Murphy.
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