BOTHELL — Lynnwood girls basketball coach Brent Hudson admits his team is still adjusting to life without since-graduated stars Mikayla Pivec and Jordyn Edwards.
“I think that’s still kind of in process,” he said.
But that would’ve been difficult to know from the Royals’ dominant performance Thursday night.
Lynnwood held Mount Rainier scoreless for several lengthy stretches and cruised past the visiting Rams for a 61-27 non-league win.
“We did a lot of the things right that we’ve been working on, so I was really pleased with that,” said Hudson, who’s in his first season at the helm of the program. “We’ve just been trying to get a lot of our smaller details — especially our defensive rotations — figured out. And they did that tonight.”
Lynnwood senior guard Kaprice Boston hit three 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 14 points to lead a balanced Royals offense that showcased superb ball movement all night. Junior forward Valerie Bell added 12 points and freshman guard Nakia Boston chipped in nine points as 11 of Lynnwood’s 12 players scored.
“We’ve got four or five people who could put up 10 to 12 points a night for us,” Hudson said. “In my mind, it’d be tricky to know who you’re going to try to stop. You kind of have to stop everybody, or somebody’s going to hurt you.”
The Royals (5-4) held Mount Rainier without a field goal for more than four minutes to begin the game, and later embarked on a 9-0 second-quarter run with 3-pointers by Kaprice Boston, Bell and Abby Douglas to build a 26-13 lead late in the first half. Lynnwood then held Mount Rainier (6-4) scoreless for nearly seven minutes to begin the third quarter while scoring 15 straight points to build 41-16 advantage.
Defensively, the Royals set out with the goal of shutting down Mount Rainier point guard Madison Lommen. And they certainly succeeded, limiting Lommen to just four points and no made field goals.
“The way our girls played defense and how they rotated, their rotation was great,” Hudson said. “We just basically went full-on denial to their point guard, and essentially she wasn’t going to touch the ball. And if she touched the ball, we double-teamed her, got her to kick it out and then we didn’t let her get it back.”
Lynnwood’s commanding victory caps a challenging non-league slate that included losses to Wesco 4A favorites Glacier Peak and Kamiak and an overtime defeat to 4A power Moses Lake. Seven of the Royals’ eight non-league opponents were 4A teams.
“We lost to some really tough teams, and so (we’re) hoping that pays off,” Hudson said. “Nobody wants to lose, but the things that we experienced in those moments (are beneficial).”
Lynnwood is coming off an unprecedented run of success in recent years, losing just five games combined over the previous three seasons while capturing the Class 3A state title in 2015 and third-place trophies in 2014 and 2016. Last season’s team finished 26-1, with the lone loss coming in the state quarterfinals to eventual champion Bellevue.
Pivec and Edwards were responsible for much of that success, but now both players have moved on to the NCAA Division-I level. Pivec, the two-time reigning Associated Press state player of the year, is playing for No. 22-ranked Oregon State and was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week on Monday. Edwards, a 3A all-state honorable mention last season, is playing for Colorado State.
“It’s definitely been tough,” Kaprice Boston said of the transition process. “Mikayla was our rebounder, so a lot of us didn’t rebound as well last year. But we’re having to adjust to that. Everything’s new. And Jordan’s 3-point shooting — she was lights-out.
“So we’re kind of just trying to figure things out as we’re going. And I think we’re doing pretty well so far.”
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