EDMONDS
From a statistical standpoint, the Feb. 13 4A District 1 tournament boys basketball game at Edmonds-Woodway High School belonged to Edmonds-Woodway’s big man.
The Warriors’ 6-foot-6 Connor Donaldson led all scorers with 20 points, including eight straight for E-W in the fourth quarter as the Warriors clinched the 51-37 victory over Lake Stevens.
But it was E-W’s reserve guard Antoinne Wafer, stealing an inbounds pass and quickly scoring, who ended a third quarter of malaise for the Warriors after they allowed Lake Stevens to crawl back into the contest at 33-29.
“I just like to play defense a lot – defense is the key to our team,” the self-proclaimed defensive specialist said. “That steal was key for us (but) I never really notice the time or how much we’re up, I just play the game.”
Wafer’s steal and basket sparked a 9-0 run that spanned the third and fourth quarters and the Warriors never looked back as Donaldson put the game out of reach and avenged E-W’s 61-60 loss to Lake Stevens in the teams’ season-opener on Nov. 29.
What made his performance more remarkable was the fact that Donaldson was playing just his second game after returning from a knee injury that kept him out for eight games this season.
“I just took advantage of the opportunities they gave me,” the senior forward said. “I was actually surprised — a few balls just popped in my hands right near the basket. I can’t say no to easy buckets.”
Edmonds-Woodway’s tenacious defense paid off early as they forced 11 Lake Stevens turnovers in the first half.
“We gave up too many points off of the offensive glass and when we did block out and get rebounds, we had way too many careless turnovers,” Lake Stevens coach Mark Hein said. “Especially against a good team like (E-W), possessions and points were tough to come by.”
The Warriors looked to push the ball up the floor quickly after every defensive stop, and their quick tempo propelled them to a 31-20 halftime lead thanks to several transition baskets and a couple of weak side cuts by Kyle McCartney — who finished with 10 points — for easy layups.
But E-W committed eight second-half turnovers of their own as Lake Stevens rallied in the third quarter to cut the deficit to four points behind two pullup jump shots by Ryan Legg and a 3-pointer by Shane Kaska.
“Lake Stevens did the right thing — they took the air out of the ball, they moved it around and that’s not a comfort zone for us,” E-W coach Gail Pintler said.
Donaldson answered with a putback and then Wafer stole the inbounds pass and scored, igniting the 9-0 run. The baskets by Donaldson helped stretched the lead to 48-31 and the Vikings got no closer than 13 the rest of the way.
Pintler said the run-and-gun style is somewhat of a contrast to last season’s E-W team.
“Last year we were plodders — this year we get the ball down the court,” he said. “With that you have to take the good with the bad and try to close your eyes to the turnovers and the unsuccessful layins, but on the other hand, we get a lot of success that way.”
Sean Stickney had 12 points to lead the Vikings and Legg added 10.
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