SEATTLE—The game had all the markings of a real cat fight when
the Lynden Lions (16-8) took the court at the Key Arena against the Mount
Si Wildcats (16-11) in the opening round game of the state 3A basketball
tournament.
The Lions took the first swipe and held off a ferocious second-half
comeback to win the late game last Wednesday night, 59-53, and move into
the winners bracket of the state tournament against Rainier Beach (23-3).
The loss dropped Mount Si into the consolation bracket where
they squared off against Franklin-Pierce (12-13) in the Mercer Arena on
Thursday afternoon. The Cardinals were routed by the highly ranked
Rainier Beach Vikings on Wednesday, 102-53.
The `Cats dug themselves into a deep hole in the opening minutes
of the game against Lynden. Almost two minutes had been played
before Mount Si got on the scoreboard with a pair of free throws from junior
Isaiah Cormier. Their first field goal came a minute later on a sweet lob pass to
6-5 senior Chris Kaplan.
Coach Gerrick Phillips admitted his players were a little intimidated
by the crowd and the atmosphere of playing on the same hardwood floor as
the Supersonics.
“The hoop can be awfully lonely out there in the middle of such a
big arena,” Phillips said.
Turnovers, cold shooting and Lynden’s zone defense kept the
Wildcats on the outside looking in during the first eight minutes of play. By
the end of the first quarter they trailed by two dozen points. Mount Si’s front
line accounted for only one offensive rebound in the first quarter.
It got so bad in the second quarter that Lynden fans began taunting
the Mount Si team for their poor shooting with chants of “air ball, air
ball.” The Wildcats trailed the Lions 37-19 at halftime.
Coach Phillips switched his team defense to a pressing
man-to-man scheme to open the third quarter. The change did help immediately as
the Lions built their advantage to more than 20 points midway through
the stanza.
But that’s when things turned around. The swarming Mount Si
defense created six consecutive turnovers as the `Cats outscored the
taller team 9-2 to cut the Lynden lead to only 16 points going into the final quarter.
The man-to-man pressure created nine turnovers in the fourth quarter
(21 overall) and produced ample opportunities for the Wildcats.
Three-point goals by Ben Eaton and Logan Ratcliff midway through the quarter cut
the deficit to 10. Another long-range bomb from Sean Fallows with
3:42 left to play trimmed the Lynden lead to only five points.
The Wildcats got as close as three points when senior Jason
Arriaga scored on a putback with 1:24 left on the clock, but that was as close as
they would get. Lynden answered with a three-point play by Ty Taubenheim
to put the final decision out of reach.
Mount Si outscored Lynden 19-9 during the dramatic fourth quarter.
“We didn’t want to make this respectable. We wanted to win,”
Phillips said after the contest. “I really
thought we could do it.”
“We pulled together and realized what we had to do,” said Cormier.
“We showed a lot of heart. It was pretty exciting, but a little too late.”
Cormier led the Wildcats with 14 points and four assists.
Arriaga chipped in with 10 points and pulled down six vital rebounds down
the stretch.
Phillips expressed hope that his team would play with the same
intensity the next day against Franklin-Pierce.
