MILL CREEK
Edmonds-Woodway stunned the sixth-ranked Snohomish boys basketball team on Feb. 16, earning its first trip to state since 1994 with a 57-53 victory over the Panthers.
Playing against a team that entered Friday’s 4A District 1 playoff game with only one loss, the Warriors proved rankings and records meaningless.
“That’s a very good team,” said Snohomish coach Len Bone, whose team fell to 20-2 after losing at Jackson High School. “Right now, they’re better than us.”
Edmonds-Woodway (17-5) plays Mariner on Feb. 24 for the district title. The state tournament begins Feb. 28.
“We never mentioned (Snohomish’s record),” said first-year Warriors coach Gail Pintler, who previously coached at Shorewood for 20 years. “We hadn’t played each other, so it’s really pretty irrelevant.”
Behind Eric Greenwood’s play at both ends of the floor, Edmonds-Woodway led by 11 points early in the fourth quarter before Snohomish rallied.
Greenwood, who contributed team highs of 20 points and eight rebounds, gave the Warriors a 45-34 advantage with 7:08 to play in the game. Snohomish used a 13-4 run over the next 41/2 minutes to close the gap to 49-47.
Snohomish forward Zach Wilde, who scored a game-high 22 points, put back his own miss to pull Snohomish within a point, 54-53, with 25.8 seconds remaining.
E-W guard James Conti sunk a pair of free throws with 13.6 seconds to go to push the lead back up to three points.
Snohomish attempted to set up a 3-point shot after Conti’s free throws, but the ball went back to the Warriors after it bounced off a Panther’s hands. Wilde attempted to draw a four-point play as the final buzzer sounded, but his shot bounced off the back rim.
In addition to his offense, Greenwood — a 6-foot-6 wing who recently signed a letter of intent to play wide receiver for the University of Idaho football team — followed Snohomish star forward Tim Diederichs’ every move. Greenwood keyed the Warriors’ 27-23 halftime edge with seven points and stellar defense on Diederichs, who shot 2-for-9 from the field and scored just five points in the first half.
Diederichs, a Loyola Marymount recruit, finished with 15 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
“Last year when we played them, I held him to three points,” said Greenwood, who helped the E-W football team advance to the state semifinals. “When I found out we were playing them, I told coach I wanted to guard him.
” … In the second half, he started getting down low a lot more. I got in some foul trouble and couldn’t pound the heck out of him like I wanted to.”
Wilde said he was only “partially” disappointed by the loss.
“We came out in the second half and showed some heart,” Wilde said. “I’m really proud of my team for that.”
Snohomish, which entered the game holding opponents to an average of eight first-quarter points, allowed 12 to E-W. Frustrated by his team’s start, Bone called a timeout 1:23 into the game.
E-W, which lost three of its final four regular-season games prior to beating Lake Stevens in the first round of the tournament, led by three after Greenwood’s short, fade-away jump shot with six seconds to go in the opening period. Kegan Bone began a Snohomish 8-0 run when he flipped in a 3-point shot as the first quarter buzzer sounded.
Leading 19-16, Diederichs blasted through some hacking Warriors and laid the ball into the basket. Anyone wearing Panther red assumed Diederichs would go to the line to try to finish off a 3-point play, but officials ruled he was fouled prior to the shot.
Snohomish threw away the ensuing inbounds pass, which began an E-W 11-4 run to close out the first half.
Casey Hamlett aided E-W with 13 points and five rebounds.
Aaron Coe writes for The Herald in Everett.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
