MOUNT VERNON — It was a battle of No. 2 versus No. 3 Monday when Sehome and Burlington-Edison met in a District 1 semifinal.
Both teams were coming off big wins in the quarterfinal round and Sehome came out feisty in its 2-3 zone defense, causing many problems for Burlington-Edison early, en route to a 72-56 win over the Tigers.
With both offenses starting off a little slow, Burlington-Edison’s Connor Anderson hit two free throws to score his team’s first points of the night.
The Mariners size advantage was apparent early in this matchup, as they consistently won on the boards all night.
Junior duo Mathew Storms and Grant Kepley were active for Sehome in the first quarter, both attacking the rim with authority. They were able to lead their team to a 20-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Kepley consistently attacked the rim when the second quarter started, getting to the bucket with ease.
Junior Grey Garrison had a big second quarter scoring all 10 of his points.
“It felt good to see some shots fall as I didn’t have a great shooting night overall. I just need to keep shooting and don’t lose confidence,” Garrison said.
With the referees calling anything and everything with contact, the whistle was heard all night. Burlington-Edison senior Zach Watson helped the Tigers cut the deficit to 31-21 at halftime.
Burlington-Edison opened the second half giving Sehome a different look on defense, switching over to a zone.
“When they switched to zone, we wanted to get the ball moving quickly, get it inside then out,” Garrison said. “When they were coming back we knew we just had to play our game and take care of the ball.”
The Tigers offense also started to click early in the second half and this caused Sehome to adjust its approach slightly, but the Mariners were prepared.
“I give a lot of credit to our scout team,” Sehome coach Skyler Gillispie said. “They really bought into running the Burlington system this past weekend and it helped our first group out a ton. Being able to guard their Princeton offense with all of the back cuts was huge for us.”
With 2:50 left in the third quarter, Sehome was up 40-31. With the bench providing the energy by yelling at the top of their lungs when their team was on defense, the Mariners took a 44-35 lead into the last quarter.
Early in the fourth quarter, junior Issac Lawrence hit back-to-back threes to extend the lead 52-37.
Gillispie had a lot to say about his sixth man.
“Isaac is a special young man. For him to have the confidence that he does for himself while coming off the bench is very rare,” Gillispie said. “I know that he credits a lot of what he’s doing to playing for his mom who was recently diagnosed with cancer. I feel very privileged to coach him and I am extremely excited to see him have success on the court as well.”
The Tigers, realizing they were losing time to come back, started to press full court. This didn’t faze the Mariners as they were able to find the open man and eventually force Burlington-Edison to foul.
Lawerence knocked down two more threes in the fourth, giving him six on the night and 18 points total.
Storms knocked down his free throws late in the game to hold the lead for his team and finished with 17 points.
Kepley also contributed 17 points, as well as senior big man Gavin Ortega finishing with double digits.
Sehome will advance to play top-seeded Lynden in the district championship game Friday at Mount Vernon High School. Burlington-Edison will face Squalicum in a loser-out game Wednesday at Lynden High School.
