Shoreline CC men win two of three at Holiday Classic

SHORELINE — Bobby Johnson continued to make up for lost time at last weekend’s Dolphin Holiday Classic.

The 6-foot-4 sophomore swingman has been nothing short of sensational since regaining his eligibility in mid-December.

As expected, his presence has made a world of difference for a Shoreline Community College men’s basketball team looking to make a run at the playoffs.

Without Johnson, Shoreline lost five of its first six games. Since his return, the Dolphins are 3-2 and head into the meat of their league schedule with a surge of momentum.

“These guys are playing a lot better now,” Shoreline coach Steve Eskridge said. “Early on we didn’t have Bobby and that was a big minus for us. Now that we’ve got him in there, we’re starting to gel as a team.”

Johnson’s career-high 39 points and 11 rebounds paced the Dolphins to an 88-78 win over College of the Cariboo Monday afternoon at Shoreline CC in the consolation final of the 10th annual Holiday Classic.

“From my first shot I just felt good,” Johnson said. “I think I made my first seven in a row and I went into halftime 7-for-8. My teammates were feeding me and I was just feeling it. Every time I got the ball and shot I felt like it was going to go in.”

His intuition was right.

Johnson was a scorching 15-for-18 from the floor, made both of his 3-pointers and seven of his eight free throw attempts. After falling behind by six in the second half, the Dolphins isolated Johnson in the post or on the wing as much as possible.

“Once the game got down towards crunch time, they wanted to feed me because I had the hot hand,” Johnson said.

Midway through the second half, Johnson provided 11 points — six unanswered — during a 14-5 Shoreline run that allowed the Dolphins to erase a one-point deficit and take a 69-63 advantage.

The Sun Demons closed the gap to 71-70 with four minutes remaining, but were held to one field goal over the next 3:40. Shoreline sealed the victory by draining seven free throws in the final minute.

“We tightened up our defense a bit,” Eskridge said. “We played really solid down the stretch, although we let a few things go in the final minutes. But we played really good defense and were more intense.”

Mandell Jones scored 11 points for the Dolphins (1-1 league, 4-7 overall), Devin Edenshaw added 10 off the bench and Nandor Kovacs hit all four of his field goals for nine points.

Kovacs was instrumental in Shoreline’s 114-74 blowout of Capilano on Sunday. The 6-3 freshman from Germany was 6-for-9 from 3-point range and hit five straight treys in the first half.

“He had to make an adjustment to the quickness here,” Eskridge said. “He’d been working very hard outside practice and it’s shown up this weekend. He’s finally made that adjustment and his confidence is there. We’re expecting good things from him now.”

Johnson was 10-for-12 from the field against Capilano and led five scorers in double figures with 24 points. Jones added 19 and Terry Powell matched Kovacs with 18.

Edenshaw chipped in 11 points to go with four steals. Centers Ben Smokavich and Bruce Cooper each hit for nine points and point guard Melvin Lyons dished out a season-high 10 assists.

As a team, Shoreline shot 61.1 percent from the field and 60 percent (15-for-25) from behind the arc, compared to Capilano’s 43.5 percent shooting.

The Dolphins led from start to finish and opened a 23-8 lead six minutes in. A 10-2 spurt to close the first half gave Shoreline a 56-32 halftime edge.

To open the eight-team tournament, the Dolphins were edged by Spokane 61-60 on a last-second 3-pointer Dec. 28.

“Without that buzzer-beater, I think we’d be playing in the championship,” Johnson said. “We had a breakdown the last five, six seconds and they hit a three. We kept our heads up, though.”

Jones scored a game-high 28 points on 11-for-15 shooting in the loss, Powell added 12 and Lyons had seven assists. The Dolphins were held below 70 points for just the third time this season.

Shoreline returns to NWAACC North Division play by hosting defending region champion Whatcom Jan. 3 and preseason favorite Edmonds Jan. 7.

The division race appears to be wide open this year, as just three North teams — Edmonds, Peninsula and North Seattle — took winning records into January.

Eskridge noted that Shoreline’s sub-par overall record may be misleading due to the impact of Johnson’s absence.

“We dropped a few games in the preseason we probably wouldn’t have dropped had he been there,” Eskridge said. “If we continue to keep making improvements, which we’ve done the past few weeks with Bobby back in the lineup, we should be OK.”TOURNEY NOTES

OTHER GAMES: Yakima Valley defeated Spokane 90-80 Monday night to capture the Dolphin Holiday Classic title. In the third-place game, Green River topped Highline 83-73.

ALL-STARS: Johnson was named to the all-tournament team, along with Yakima’s Josh Williams (MVP), Dominique DeWeese and Ryan Rostvold; Spokane’s Matt Bauscher and Kyle Janke; and Green River’s Dwanye Wright.