LYNNWOOD
The good games always go down to the wire.
After a back-and-forth battle, the Ferndale girls basketball team came back to defeat Lynnwood 67-62 in the final varsity game at the old Lynnwood High School Gym on Feb. 24.
Ferndale (15-6 overall) went on a 7-0 run in the middle of the fourth quarter and began to pull away. But just when it looked like the Royals were out, Mokun Fajemisin had a put back to cap a 7-0 Lynnwood run to pull the Royals to within five, 65-60 with 48 seconds remaining. After a steal on the inbounds pass, Kayla Horton made a mid-range shot to bring the Royals to within three.
But that’s as close as Lynnwood got. Forced to foul, the Royals sent Haley Locker (eight points – five on free throws in the final quarter) to the line, where she converted both free throws to seal the victory.
The Royals play Shorecrest, which lost to Glacier Peak 55-43, in a loser-out game at 6 p.m. Friday at Mount Vernon High School. Ferndale plays Glacier Peak in a semifinal at 6 p.m. Thursday at Mount Vernon H.S.
“It’ll be a good game no matter what,” Lynnwood head coach Everett Edwards said. “Hopefully we can pull out a ‘W.’”
After both teams started the 3A District 1 game with a couple turnovers, they settled in and began exchanging buckets. Ferndale went on a 6-0 run to jump out to the early lead, but Lynnwood came storming back behind Fajemisin, a freshman standout who scored six of the Royals’ 12 first-quarter points.
Fajemisin continued her dominance in the second quarter, scoring another 13 points – including nine straight Lynnwood points – and all but shutting down Ferndale’s Ashley Honeycutt, the Northwest Conference’s leading scorer who averages 19.8 points per game. She did not score a field goal until there were three minutes and 16 seconds remaining in the second quarter.
However, Honeycutt would not be denied in the second half. After Lynnwood began the second half with a 9-0 run and held Ferndale scoreless for the first eight minutes of the quarter, Honeycutt made a couple field goals and wound up with 21 points, 15 of which came in the Golden Eagles’ second-half run. Sophomore Erika Locker, the younger sister of University of Washington quarterback Jake Locker who was in attendance, added 15 points and converted six free throws in the final quarter.
“They got the ball to 32 (Ashley Honeycutt),” Edwards said. She was held in check for the first half, but she plays hard and she’s “very aggressive.”
Fajemisin, who averaged a double-double during the regular season, finished with a game-high 30 points for Lynnwood and was a key contributer for the Royals (8-14) throughout the night.
“(Fajemisin) is an awesome player,” Edwards said. “The future is very bright for her.”
Fellow freshman Casey Evans had nine points and guard Kari Hella added eight points, including two key field goals late in the game to keep the Royals close.
David Kruger writes for The Herald in Everett.
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