BOTHELL— Only one 3A District 1 girls basketball team has a chance to play nothing but home games while trying to make regionals.
Thanks to a 54-37 win over Everett and Glacier Peak’s victory over Ferndale Wednesday night, that team is Lynnwood. The District 1 championship game is next week at the high school’s two-year old gym.
“It’s a good feeling,” Lynnwood’s Mokun Fajemisin said.
After the Royals’ shaky first half, Fajemisin, a junior post, sparked her team after the break. She finished with game-highs in points (17) and rebounds (13) as well as three steals and three blocked shots.
The Royals now face Glacier Peak in the semifinals Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Lynnwood gym.
“That is awesome,” coach Everett Edwards said. “It’s everything that we’ve fought for. To have the opportunity to play Glacier Peak, which is a very good team, is very exciting, especially in front of our students and fans.”
Lynnwood swept the season series with the Grizzlies, but neither win was greater than seven points.
After Wednesday night’s first half, it looked like the Royals might have to play their way through the loser’s bracket to make it back to their home court, having fallen behind 25-23 at the break.
Everett’s Sidney Rielly was a one-woman wrecking crew early, having a hand in all of Everett’s first 12 points via her own shot or assists.
On the defensive end, Everett’s attacking zone nullified Lynnwood’s offense, which was held to a single field goal in the first quarter when Jasmin Edwards drove the lane for a hoop after the opening tip.
Rielly, a freshman playing in the first playoff game, led the Seagulls with 14 points. However, she scored just four of her points after halftime.
“It was a team effort,” Fajemisin said of stopping Rielly in the second half. “We know that she’s a lefty and she really likes attacking the left with momentum, so we tried to cut of the lanes that she usually takes and focus on helping.”
After Rielly scored an easy transition basket in the opening seconds of the third quarter, the Lynnwood defense stepped up.
With its defense cranked up, the Royals went on an 11-2 run capped when Fajemisin stepped into a passing lane at the top of the key for a steal and then took it the distance for a score to give Lynnwood a five-point lead.
“We just knew that the second half we just had to come out and play Lynnwood basketball,” Fajemisin said. “We had to focus on our defense because our defense turns into our offense.
“I knew I wasn’t really looking for my shot in the first half, so I knew I had to try to make my offensive shots and really attack the basket.”
The dagger in the back of the Seagulls came with one second to play in the third quarter when they lost the ball out of bounds for a turnover. The Royals lobbed an inbounds pass to Meghan Cross at the top of the key and she banked in three of her nine points at the buzzer to give Lynnwood a 46-31 advantage.
Although Everett lost, it still has life thanks to the tournament’s double-elimination format. Coach John Low was proud of the fight his team showed in the first half, but disappointed in the second.
“I’d like to think that we can build off of (our strong first half), but we are a young team and we’ve got to learn to play through adversity,” Low said.
Everett travels to Ferndale Friday night in a loser-out contest at 7:30 p.m.
At Lynnwood High School
Everett 10 15 6 6 37
Lynnwood 10 13 23 8 54
Everett—Harper 8, Davis 3, Antiojo 0, Bagley 0, Reilly 14, Barhanovich 0, Jameson 0, Taggart 4, Liger 8. Lynnwood—Edwards 9, Maza 0, Douglas 0, Cross 9, Mbye 0, Hufane 0 Evans 1, Trautman 0,Fajemisin 17, Ivanov 10, Parker 2 , Wilson 6 Three-Point Goals—Ivanov 2, Davis 1, Cross 1 Everett 13-8 , Lynnwood 18-3
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