EDMONDS — The Edmonds-Woodway and Kamiak girls weren’t playing for a league championship on Monday, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t anything on the line.
The Knights came into the game with a one-game lead over the Warriors for the third seed in the Wesco 4A South and had a chance to lock up that spot with a victory.
Instead, it was Edmonds-Woodway which seized the driver’s seat for the No. 3 seed with a 43-40 win. The two teams each have an 8-6 league record after the Warriors’ victory, but Edmonds-Woodway has the tie-breaker on the strength of its two league victories over the Knights. The Warriors can lock up the third seed with a victory over Cascade in Wednesday’s regular-season finale.
While the prospect of entering the district tournament with the fourth seed and having to face the No. 1 seed from the Wesco North seemed daunting, Edmonds-Woodway head coach Rebekah Wells insisted that wasn’t her team’s focus going into the game.
“It was a good win,” Wells said. “I think it was more about beating Kamiak because (the Knights) had a good rally the last time we played them. We wanted to see that we still were the same team that beat them (earlier in the season) and see that we can still beat a team twice in a row.”
The No. 4 seed will face Arlington, a team that has lost just three games all season, in the first round of the district tournament. The No. 3 seed will face either Snohomish, Monroe or Lake Stevens, all teams with records hovering around .500.
“We are not really thinking about third place or fourth place as much as we just like to take games one at a time,” Wells said. “But it’s good to have third place kind of locked in.”
The entire game seemed to be a series of runs made by Edmonds-Woodway subsequently answered by Kamiak. The Warriors scored the first seven points of the game, only to see Kamiak answer with a 9-0 run of its own. Edmonds-Woodway countered with a 9-0 run and led 16-11 after the first quarter.
Neither team mustered much offense in the second quarter, but the Warriors found enough to extend their lead to 26-16 at halftime. Freshman Missy Peterson scored all seven points she had in the game in the first half to lead Edmonds-Woodway.
“Missy does a great job,” Wells said. “For a freshman she goes on rolls and gets the energy and she’s just all over the place.”
The Knights made it a game in the second half, trimming the Warriors lead to four after the third quarter and tying the game briefly in the fourth. When the Warriors needed a big bucket, they turned to junior point guard Moni Jackson who’s three in the final two minutes gave the Warriors the lead for good.
“Moni Jackson does a really great job of either distributing the ball or getting the baskets when we need them,” Wells said. “She’s a great point guard to have that can see the court well.”
Kamiak had an opportunity to send the game to overtime, but senior Margaret Slack’s 3-pointer narrowly missed as time expired.
Jackson finished with a game-high 11 points. Tylor Adcock had nine for Kamiak.
Despite Wells saying here team lacked energy at time, the Warriors were able to squeak out a win on senior night.
“It’s hard with a Monday night game,” Wells said. “I think the issues with Monday night is that they didn’t play yesterday and they had school for the first time this week and they are just a little bit more groggy.”
Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on twitter @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.
At Edmonds-Woodway H.S.
Kamiak 11 5 14 10 — 40
E-W 16 10 8 9 — 43
Kamiak—Aliea Marrero 4, Alexie Morris 3, Tylor Adcock 9, Kaiya Larsen 0, Nicolette Kendrick 0, Aubrey Patrick 2, Jocelynn Blackshear 0, Margaret Slack 5, Salena Taylor 8, Emily Pillman 0, Nora Aboulhosn 4, Monique Canda 0, Katy Hamill 4. Edmonds-Woodway—Kate Wooley 0, Mady Burdett 7, Sidney Eck 10, Natalie Kasper 4, Maddy Nealey 2, Claire Fyfe 0, Moni Jackson 11, Lea Bakken 2, Victoria Lebesis 0, Sydney Peterson 7. 3-point goals—Morris 1, Aboulhosn 1, Adcock 1, Burdett 1, Jackson 2, Peterson 1. Records—Kamiak 8-6 league, 10-9 overall. Edmonds—Woodway 8-6, 12-7.
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