Lions' clutch plays late secures win

YAKIMA — Behind a defense which has kept them alive all season, the Moses Lake Christian Academy Lions relied on it once again in their 1B state quarterfinal against Lummi last night.

A tough defensive stand in the last 16 seconds forced a missed shot and a last-second turnover as the Lions eliminated the  high-flying Lummi Blackhawks 37-34 to advance to tonight’s state semifinal game.

The Academy (19-5) take on suddenly hot St. John-Endicott (15-11) at 8 p.m. in the second of two semifinals and make their second consecutive appearance in the final four.

“Man I tell you what, I was pretty much speechless in the locker room but I knew we could compete with these guys,” Lions’ coach Duke Wood said. “They are fast, good, and score. So I told them to hunker down on defense because we couldn’t let the game get into the 60s since we can’t score with those guys. I can not believe how well they responded. Our guys played with so much heart and pride.”

Junior Lion Isaac Murrell hit two free throws with 16.2 seconds left in the game to give the Lions the final margin of victory and a missed Lummi (22-3) jumper and stolen inbounds pass in the last five seconds of the game was enough to book passage to within two wins of a state title.

“What we did at the end was we switched up by coming out in a zone,” Wood said. “They pulled out of a man offense and then we manned up and it threw them off. The guys did everything we asked of them for every second, down to the horn.”

The Lions won despite the valiant efforts of Blackhawk David James, who scored a game-high 20 points.

“He’s a good player,” Lions’ senior Jonny Roberts said. “When we watched him on film he tore people up. He is the best kid taking it to the rack of any team we’ve played against. Tonight he hit some big threes and got the job done. The kid is a good player.”

James spearheaded a strong surge at the end of the third quarter, bringing his club back from a 25-18 deficit with a seven-point surge by himself to put the Blackhawks up 27-26 by the time the buzzer sounded.

With eight minutes left to go it appeared momentum had shifted.

“We pooped ourselves a little bit or whatever word we can use and didn’t execute against the press,” Wood said. “I told them they fought too hard to play like this and we had to do what we can do and be patient and not hurry. We started to run the clock and slow the game down and got momentum back.”

Lummi started the fourth quarter with a shot inside to build the lead to 29-26 but then Lions sophomore Connor Webb decided to introduce himself.

Webb hit a three-pointer at 5:15 to tie the game and tied the game again after Lummi reclaimed the lead and the score was knotted at 31-31 with under three minutes left.

“Connor has been someone we don’t look to be an offensive weapon and just a defensive stopper but he can shoot,” Wood said. “I can not ask for anything more than what he did tonight. When that first shot went up on the three I was the happiest guy on earth when it went in. That kid, I tell you what, has ice in his veins.”

Stefan McNamara put the Academy up 33-31 on a lay-up but James hit a three-pointer in response and Lummi led 34-33 with 2:20 remaining.

On their next possession the Lions turned the ball over and Lummi was in possession and feeling positive about their chances.

Then the Lions’ rose once again.

“I knew we could get some shots to fall and they were frustrated,” Wood said. “I had a feeling if we sucked it up and played defense like we had been, something good would happen and that’s what happened.”

They forced a shot-clock violation on the subsequent Blackhawk possession and Roberts rewarded the defense with a runner at 1:05 to give the Academy a 35-34 lead.

“At that point when they led I was pretty discouraged but at state you can’t stay that way,” Roberts said. “When I hit that shot I was feeling pretty good because it put us back up and I knew we could play better defense than them if we could stop them from penetrating. I had a lot of confidence in the guys.”

Lummi was then forced into a turnover with :45 and Murrell would earn a foul just as the Academy shot clock was about to run out and the rest was history.

“Those free throws were big, huge,” Wood said. “We struggled at the line before that but he’s one of our best and those didn’t even touch rim. He was clutch.”

Roberts led the Lions with 13 points, McNamara added nine points and Murrell finished with seven.

The Academy shot 27 percent from the field but held Lummi  — who scored 65 points in their quarterfinal win the previous day — to 28 percent shooting themselves.

With two games left it’s time for the Lions to now continue riding high on their defense while hoping their offense can do enough to keep them advancing over the course of the next two days.

“I think the farther the we go in this tournament the tougher we are getting and the more confident we are playing,” Wood said. “They have played with a chip on their shoulders and are playing pretty good basketball lately. They are jelling really well.”

St. John-Endicott advanced with a 71-59 upset over Cusick (20-7) in yesterday’s first quarterfinal.