LYNNWOOD
Home, sweet home.
The Shorecrest boys basketball team earned a first round 3A District 1 home playoff game with a 57-45 win over Lynnwood in a seeding game Friday, Feb. 20 at Meadowdale High School.
The third-seeded Scots got their third win of the season over the fourth-seeded Royals and will host a first round game against Ferndale, the Northwest Conference’s second seed at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 25. No current player or coach was around the last time the Scots had a home district playoff game and it’s most likely been since the mid-1990s since its happened.
“It’s a huge advantage for us,” senior point guard Travis Hake said.
Lynnwood will travel north to play Mount Vernon, the Northwest Conference’s No. 1 seed, on Feb. 25.
Hake led the Scots with 13 points and hit three 3-pointers including a pair in the key third quarter where Shorecrest extended its lead to double digits.
Senior center Ryan Dodge added 12 points and freshman forward Junior Chibuogwu chipped in with 10.
After Lynnwood took a 13-12 lead in the second quarter on an inside basket by 6-foot, 9-inch junior center Simi Fajemisin, the Scots answered with a 9-0 run. Guard
Jordan Diel hit a 3-pointer, followed by a 3-pointer by Hake and a traditional three-point play by Chibuogwu.
Lynnwood cut the lead to three on a basket by senior Geoff Meinken but Diel threw up a desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer that banked in and put Shorecrest up six at the half.
Shorecrest led by as many as 11 in third quarter and ended the period with a 39-29 advantage after a 3-pointer by Hake.
Lynnwood cut the lead to five twice in the fourth quarter but after Fajemisin, the only non-senior on the roster, fouled out with 15 points with 3:20 left, the Royals never got closer than six.
Shorecrest made 12-of-15 free throws in the final period to put the game away. The four guards who played, Hake, Diel, Richard Weinberg and Isaiah Clevenger combined for 30 points.
“Our guards were on tonight,” Hake said. “Our big guys, they got it tough in there with Simi, good thing he fouled out. I think we could have (increased) the lead if we would’ve rebounded better, we just didn’t reboard. We got the ball inside, we were going inside-out that was the game plan. We did pretty well. They double-teamed so we had to kick it out and our guards were hittin’. Jordan hit that three at the end of the half, that was pretty nice.”
Senior guard Aaron Matzen also scored 15 points for Lynnwood, including five straight points in the fourth quarter to get Lynnwood back in the game.
But it was clear that the Lynnwood coaches, players and fans were frustrated with the three officials and the foul disparity in the game, especially in the second half. Lynnwood finished with 25 fouls to Shorecrest’s 11, and Fajemisin and guard
Edward Evans fouled out while Meinken racked up four fouls.
“We got to put this behind us,” Lynnwood coach Darrell McNeal said. “It’s playoff time.”
McNeal said he’ll watch film on whoever the next opponent is and decide if the Royals will try to pound it inside to Fajemisin, who aside from the fouls, had an excellent game. Two-thirds of the Royals points came from Fajemisin and Matzen, the Royals two leading scorers.
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