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While it can be exciting to be invited to a party, sometimes your presence there doesn’t entirely work out as you would have hoped for.
So it was for the Edmonds-Woodway Warriors as the team made its first-ever appearance in a special day of high school basketball on Martin Luther King Day, only to be defeated by a powerhouse squad from the Portland area.
The Edmonds-Woodway Warriors were held to their lowest point production of the season in a 58-46 loss to the Tualatin Timberwolves in a King Showcase high school basketball game played Monday afternoon at the ShoWare Center in Kent.
Edmonds-Woodway had entered Monday’s contest averaging 64.6 points per game, but shot just 32.7% from the field (18-for-55) against the Timberwolves and could only muster 22 second-half points in the matchup.
E-W Coach Tyler Geving attributed the loss to the team’s inability to score with second chance opportunities throughout the game.
“We had 17 offensive rebounds but we only got five second-chance points,” Geving said. “So we did a poor job of converting; we got the offensive rebound but then we couldn’t score. We were missing some easy ones at the rim. If you get that many offensive rebounds, to only have five second chance points, that kills you.”
While offensive rebounds will often lead to high-percentage put-back opportunities, the Warriors were unable to take advantage. “We missed a lot of shots within five feet today,” Geving said. “And that was probably the difference in the game.”
The Warriors held a 17-4 advantage over Tualatin in offensive rebounds and a 42-24 edge in overall rebounds, but couldn’t turn those numbers into a victory.
While the E-W offense sputtered, the team’s work on the defensive end of the court against the usually-high-scoring Timberwolves was sharp. Tualatin had been averaging 72.1 points per game this year — the Warriors held the visitors from Oregon to more than 14 points below their average and their third-lowest game output of the season.
“We did a great job in transition defense,” Geving said. “We had a big emphasis in getting back in transition, building a wall and not allowing them to get to the rim. And for the most part, I thought we did a pretty good job with that.”
While E-W ultimately lost by a margin of 12 points, the team pushed Tualatin throughout the fourth quarter, down by as little as three points at times, before running out of gas late.
After a DJ Karl 3-pointer closed the Tualatin lead to 48-43, the Timberwolves outscored the Warriors 10-3 in the game’s final 2:42 to put away the victory.
Tualatin was led in scoring by the game-high 25 points of senior Jemai Lake, who has verbally committed to play next year at the University of Montana. Junior guard Pat Vialva Jr., who is already receiving interest from Portland State University, scored 17 points for the Timberwolves on Monday.
Geving was impressed with the play of the Timberwolves backcourt duo of Lake and Vialva Jr. “They’ve got two Division 1 guards,” he said. “They’re better than any guards we’ll see in our league.”
Tualatin (11-5 overall) is ranked no.4 in Oregon’s 6A-5 classification (for the state’s largest high schools). The Timberwolves’ five losses this season have been to the 6A-5 no.1-ranked Southridge, no.2-ranked Oregon City, no.3-ranked Central Catholic, the state of Louisiana’s 5A no.2-ranked Ruston and Washington state’s 3A no.1-ranked Rainier Beach.
Considering the level of competition, Geving wasn’t entirely disappointed with the game’s outcome. “I was happy with our effort,” he said.
The Warriors were led in scoring by the 14 points of Grant Williams; Karl had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds in the defeat.
Despite the loss – just the second of the season for the 14-2 Warriors – Geving was upbeat afterwards.
“I’m glad we played the game,” Geving said. “It was a good test for us. There’s a lot of positives that came out of it and a lot of good teaching stuff that we can learn from.”
Geving was also pleased that the Warriors’ basketball program was included in the King Showcase, an all-day event featuring seven prep contests at Kent’s 7,100-seat Showare Center.
“It’s cool to play on MLK Day and play in a cool venue,” Geving said. “It was something different, playing a team from out-of-state that you never see. They are obviously a very good team. When we scheduled it, I thought it would be a good test for us heading down the stretch run.”
“It’s good for us that the people running the event saw what we did last year and wanted us a part of it,” he added. “They’re trying to bring good teams to it, so the fact that we got invited was a cool thing. It was a good opportunity and maybe we’ll come back next year.”
The Warriors return to 2A/3A Wesco League play on Wednesday, Jan. 21, when they host Archbishop Murphy. Tipoff at Edmonds-Woodway High School is set for 7:15 p.m.
Prep Boys Basketball: Tualatin vs. Edmonds-Woodway, Jan. 19
Tualatin 14 17 8 19 – 58
Edmonds-Woodway 10 14 9 13 – 46
Edmonds-Woodway individual scoring: Grant Williams 14, DJ Karl 11, William Alseth 8, Julian Gray 5, Dre Simonsen 4, Shayaan Shah 2, Cruz Escandon 2
Tualatin individual scoring: Jemai Lake 25, Pat Vialva Jr. 17, Damian Olvera 6, Takeo McCrae 5, Elijah Casey 2, Carter Powers 2, Carter Lemon 1, Daniel Hailey, Ryan Wacker, Lincoln Keeney, Rylan Estes, Riley Wacker
Records: Edmonds-Woodway 6-1 in 2A/3A Wesco League South Conference, 14-2 overall; Tualatin 1-1 in 6A-5 Three Rivers League, 11-5 overall
Edmonds-Woodway next game: versus Archbishop Murphy; Wednesday, Jan. 21; 7:15 p.m. at Edmonds-Woodway High School
Tualatin next game: versus Lake Oswego; Tuesday, Jan. 20; 6 p.m. at Lake Oswego High School
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