The Lynnwood girls basketball team was running on empty.
After nearly upsetting top-seeded Sehome two days earlier, the Royals were emotionally and physically drained when they faced off against Shorecrest in last week’s Northwest District 3A loser-out contest.
The Scots, who swept the regular-season series between the Wesco South rivals, took control of the game with a 20-9 third-quarter burst and defeated Lynnwood 56-36 on Feb. 20 at Mount Vernon High School.
“We had given a lot of energy on Wednesday (against Sehome),” said Royals coach Jon Rasmussen. “I don’t think the team quite recovered. Shorecrest is quite a good team. They had four 3s in the first half. They broke up our zone.”
Lynnwood (7-15 overall) found itself a step behind Shorecrest in the second quarter after trailing 12-8 at the end of the first period.
Senior guard Molly Hunsinger scored a team-high 12 points for the Royals.
“Throughout the night, it was just as if we were slow afoot,” Rasmussen said. “We were tired from the night before. We thought we could keep up with Shorecrest.”
Lynnwood headed into the postseason a little banged up.
“Not to make excuses, but we were dealing with a lot of adversity in injuries,” Rasmussen said. “We were not a healthy team coming into districts.
“We did our best. The girls worked their tails off … it was a good year and we learned a lot. I’ll definitely miss my six seniors. It will be somewhat of a rebuilding year (next season). But I’ve got some quality kids coming back.”
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