LYNNWOOD — Defense ruled the court for three quarters at Meadowdale High School Jan. 23.
After playing for 24 minutes, the Lynnwood and Meadowdale girls basketball teams had scored only a combined 32 points.
“We set offensive basketball back about 20 years,” Lynnwood head coach Everett Edwards said with a big grin after the game.
Then, the fourth quarter arrived, and defense went out the window.
In the fourth quarter the two teams combined for 38 points in an offensive explosion.
The Lady Mavs, who trailed by eight entering the final quarter, outscored the Royals 22-16, but it wasn’t enough as Lynnwood escaped with an exciting 36-34 victory in the Wesco 3A contest.
“We hustled and played good defense and were able to keep our lead,” Edwards said. “I’m just happy to win.”
With a 20-12 score at the end of the third quarter, there was little reason to expect an offensive display in the game’s final eight minutes. By scoring 22 points, the Mavs almost doubled their score in the final quarter alone.
Lynnwood’s Meghan Cross, one of the Royals’ top scorers, had a team-high 12 points. Cross had eight points in the first quarter to help Lynnwood pull ahead early, but quickly found herself in foul trouble. She sat most of the second quarter, with the Royals up by at least nine all the way to halftime.
Cross remained scoreless until the final minutes of the game, when her team needed her to assert herself. She got a rebound and a quick basket with a couple minutes remaining and made two free throws with 10 seconds left to all but seal the victory for Lynnwood.
“(Cross) got off to a good start, doing some things,” said Edwards. “It’s been a challenge for our team a bit when she’s in foul trouble. … Ultimately she closed the game out for us.”
The Royals needed Cross’s free throws because of a furious push by Meadowdale’s Margreet Barhoum in the second half. Barhoum had all four of the Lady Mavs’ points in the third quarter, and eight of her 16 total points in the fourth. She also had three steals.
“She’s the scorer,” said Troy Parker, the Meadowdale head coach.
“I’ve been coaching here for five years and every time I’ve been here we try to slow her down,” Edwards said of Barhoum. “She has a tremendous will and ability to get to the basket.”
Katie Rickel, the Mavs’ second-leading scorer with eight points, had six in the fourth quarter — including the first 3-pointer of the game for either team a little over a minute into the fourth period.
Both teams played full-court pressure in the final quarter, attempting to trap the opposing guard bringing the ball up the floor. In the first quarter it worked flawlessly for Lynnwood.
The Lady Mavs scored first, about 20 seconds into the game. But they didn’t score again until the second quarter while Lynnwood went on an 11-0 run. Both teams scored six points apiece in the second quarter to give the Royals a 17-8 advantage at halftime.
“Lynnwood played the best defensive game against us that we’ve seen all year,” Parker said. “We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well, but they had a lot to do with that.”
In the third quarter, points were at a premium for both teams, with Barhoum outscoring the Royals 4-3. Lynnwood suddenly went cold from the field, and didn’t make a field goal in the second half until a 3-pointer by Grace Douglas three minutes into the fourth quarter, gave them a five-point lead over Meadowdale.
“(The poor offense) wasn’t for lack of trying,” Parker said. “We just lost our poise a little bit against their pressure.”
Douglas’ shot helped usher in a wave of scoring for both teams, with the Lady Mavs and Royals trading baskets right up until the buzzer, when Lynnwood’s Rickel scored from the post as time expired for the game’s final basket.
“We were able to get the pace more up-tempo,” said Parker. “I thought for three quarters they controlled the pace. For the last quarter we controlled it.”
Senior Casey Evans added nine points for the Royals’ effort, and, with lots of shots bouncing off the rim, grabbed five rebounds. Linda Wilson grabbed a game-high nine rebounds and Cross also had six boards for Lynnwood. The Royals outrebounded the Mavs 36-27.
Alisa Sagdahl tallied eight rebounds for Meadowdale, which had won four of its last five games coming into Monday night’s contest.
“It’s a tough place to play,” Edwards said. “It’s tough to come in and get a win in Meadowdale.”
Edwards felt inclined to blame last week’s snow storm – which made a Sunday shootaround the only practice the Royals had all week – for the shots not dropping.
“I gotta blame it on something,” he said laughing.
“It is what it is. Both teams struggled offensively tonight.”
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