Shorecrest dismisses Lynnwood

LYNNWOOD — The Lynnwood girls basketball team might be best described as a work in progress.

So nights such as last week’s matchup with 3A rival Shorecrest are bound to happen.

The Scots blitzed Lynnwood in the first quarter, jumping out to a 14-0 lead from which the Royals never recovered. Shorecrest kept the pressure on, limiting the Royals to single digits in the first three quarters en route to a 59-33 rout in a Western Conference South Division game Dec. 22 at Lynnwood High School.

“They’re a good team and they had a really good shooting night,” first-year Lynnwood coach Jody Schauer said of the Scots. “They obviously were prepared for us. I think part of it was they were mentally focused and they were physically ready for the game.”

The contest marked the first appearance at Lynnwood High School of former coach Jon Rasmussen, who ended a six-year stay with the Royals over the summer to fill the coaching vacancy at Shorecrest. The Royals went 36-118 in Rasmussen’s four years as head coach and reached the district playoffs twice.

“It’s always tough playing against a coach that you had previously,” said Lynnwood senior forward Kristen Hjertstedt. “Mentally it’s hard because you kind of miss last year, but you’ve just got to kind of move on and get through that. I think that was kind of a hard thing to deal with.

“He (Rasmussen) knows our talents and what we can do because he’s seen us play so many times.”

Junior guard Alexa Breidenbach had mixed feelings when she saw Rasmussen on the opposing sideline.

“It was fun going up against him,” Breidenbach said. “It brought (back) some memories. It was hard, though, seeing him coach another team, but it was a lot of fun. I’m glad we got to play against him.”

Breidenbach and her teammates, however, probably were hoping for a better performance against their former coach.

Lynnwood struggled to deal with Shorecrest’s pressure defense from the opening tip. The Royals didn’t score their first basket until the 4:30 mark of the first quarter. Shorecrest held Lynnwood scoreless for nearly 10 straight minutes during the second and third quarters.

Part of the reason for Lynnwood’s shaky start was that two players had to sit out the first quarter for disciplinary issues, according to Schauer.

“That kind of affected our whole mentality,” he said. “We just weren’t mentally ready, mentally sharp tonight.”

The Royals have been undergoing a major transition with the arrival of Schauer and the graduation of most of their key starters from last year’s district playoff team.

“Our team is still adjusting and coming together as a team,” said Breidenbach, who scored a game-high 13 points. “A lot of it is still getting to know how each other plays and just adjusting to the game. It did throw us off a little bit with some starters not in the game.”

Hjertstedt acknowledged that Lynnwood has struggled of late but said that the team has the potential to do better.

“Right now everyone needs to get it together,” Hjertstedt said. “We need to seriously play like a team. We need to get everybody’s head in the game. We’re kind of in a spot where we’re struggling a little bit now. I know we can get back and do it. We need to come out every game with all the intensity. We can’t leave anything on the court at the end of the game.

“Every single person that steps foot on the court needs to play their heart out every game.”

Shorecrest was led by senior guard Kat Binder and senior guard Mary Tseng, who scored 11 and 10 points, respectively. Senior forward Amy Farquhar had eight and senior forward Banimi Lawson and junior guard Roxanne Sharkey each had seven.

“We understood this would be a difficult game for Jon, coming back to the gym where he coached for so long,” Farquhar said. “We wanted to get a win for Jon and make him feel a little more comfortable.”

During pregame introductions, Rasmussen received a warm reception from the Lynnwood crowd.

“It was very nice,” Rasmussen said. “I’ve got a lot of friends here and family. It was a good six years.”