Despite what Yoda says, size sometimes does matter.
Behind 26 points from 6-foot-4 inch senior Erich Fuhlendorf and 17 from 6-foot-7 inch senior Dylan O’Neil, King’s proved that size does matter as the Knights defeated Cedarcrest 66-57 Wednesday night, Jan. 16, in a physical Cascade Conference game at Cedarcrest High School.
The Knights used their height to outrebound the Red Wolves on both the offensive and defensive sides of the board and used their length in shutting down the Cedarcrest offense.
O’Neil finished with a double-double, grabbing 17 rebounds and controlling the paint for much of the game.
“We really pride ourselves on our defense, that’s the biggest thing for us,” King’s head coach Bill Liley said. “We want to make sure we defend first and everything else is second.”
King’s (7-0 in league, 9-4 overall) came into the game winners of four straight, Cedarcrest (4-2, 9-4) had won five in a row and was looking to move up the Cascade Conference standings with a win.
“We’re a team that has really big goals for the season and we need as many tough games as we can get in this conference,” Liley said.
Since 2000, King’s has made seven trips to the state tournament, placing third or higher in five of those seven trips.
King’s began the game on a 10-0 run with Fuhlendorf scoring 10 of the Knights 24 first-quarter points.
The Knights would cruise into the half with a 38-28 advantage and, behind six early third-quarter points from O’Neil, would go into the final quarter with a 50-41 advantage.
“They did a good job of getting the ball inside and we don’t have guys that can match up with (their size),” Cedarcrest head coach Ray LaBate said.
Despite the size, LaBate said the Knights players, “run pretty well, they negated our running game a little bit.”
Knowing that King’s was in foul trouble, LaBate took a different approach by asking his Red Wolves to attack the basket.
“We tried to attack the basket. We did a good job of clawing ourselves back in,” LaBate said.
The Red Wolves would make things interesting in the fourth quarter, using a 12-3 run to cut the Knights lead to two at 56-54 on a Louie LaBate 3-pointer.
Fuhlendorf, who scored nine of his 26 in the final quarter, countered LaBate’s 3-pointer with his biggest basket of the night, a 3-pointer that put King’s up 59-54 with 2:48 remaining.
Cullen Hammontree’s layup cut the Knights lead to three, but after a Bryan Ayers basket the Red Wolves were never able to get any closer, missing three of its final four three throws in the final minute.
“We gave ourselves a chance to be in the game. We just have to make some free throws and get the defensive rebounds,” LaBate said.
Hammontree led Cedarcrest with 20 points, 13 in the second half and Louie LaBate added 12.
“I was really impressed with Cullen Hammontree. He did a really good job on our big guys. It was a physical game, which is what we want. They made a nice little run on us,” Liley said.
Despite the loss, Cedarcrest is still off to its best start in the 10 years LaBate has been at the school.
Kevin Johnson writes for The Herald in Everett.
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