Battle of the Lions

SPOKANE — Despite a scare late in the fourth quarter, the No. 5 seed MLCA/CCS Lions held on to advance to the 1B boys state quarterfinals with a 58-54 win over the No. 12 seed Sound Christian Lions on Wednesday night, surviving to leave the Spokane Arena with a state playoff win.

The game flipped in the third quarter, where MLCA/CCS held Sound Christian to just five points. Sound Christian rallied late in the fourth quarter, nearly erasing a 10-point MLCA/CCS lead before falling short of the comeback win.

“It’s obviously what we wanted, but it’s what we expected,” MLCA/CCS Head Coach Emerson Ferguson said. “We expected to come in here as the experienced team and get a victory. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy; this is a solid team. We had to come out and really play our game the right way.”

Having placed sixth at last year’s state tournament, the MLCA/CCS Lions used last year’s tournament experience to their advantage in the third quarter, forcing turnovers and creating offense off their defense.

“The third quarter is when (our experience) showed,” Ferguson said. “We took the lead at halftime, and then in the third quarter we really shut them down defensively. We just kept coming; that’s one of the things that we do.”

Once the MLCA/CCS defense got rolling in the third quarter, it became difficult to stop. MLCA/CCS outscored Sound Christian 11-5 in the third quarter to take an eight-point lead into the fourth.

“We create our offense off of our defense,” senior Jonah Robertson said. “Once we get deflections, steals, stops, our offense just clicks because we’re in motion. All of us play off emotion.”

The strong defensive performance in the third quarter showed in the final score, Ferguson said.

“It was huge because they had 17, 14 and 18 in the other three quarters,” Ferguson said. “To hold them to five and then to win by four – that says so much about our boys deciding that we had to do something. Our boys knew that they had to do something, and I always tell them that ‘It starts on defense. Defense will turn to offense.’”

Sound Christian led 17-13 after the first quarter, but the deficit would’ve been even more had senior Michael Podolyn not made his three-pointer just before the buzzer.

“It’s hard when you’re out there working, and they’re just not missing,” Ferguson said. “For Michael (Podolyn) to hit that and us to be within (four) we’re like, ‘Okay, we’re in good shape.’ It really was a good confidence boost for us.”

The MLCA/CCS Lions rode that confidence boost into the second quarter, where Robertson hit a three to give his team a 33-31 lead over Sound Christian going into halftime.

“They were in control for most of that first half, but then we battled that second quarter and kept coming,” Ferguson said. “Then all of a sudden – boom, one breakdown and we made them pay … it’s more or less the mental edge at halftime; that was a big thing and you saw it carry on to the third quarter.”

Once his defender switched onto his teammate, junior Caleb Jones, Robertson knew he had the green light to shoot.

“I saw Caleb (Jones) drive, and my (defender) dropped on Caleb,” Robertson said. “Then, I was just like ‘I’m catching and shooting.’ If he’s not going to play up on me, I’m going to shoot it.”

After amassing a 52-41 lead with three and a half minutes remaining in the game, Sound Christian called a timeout to collect its thoughts before returning to the court. The Sound Christian Lions came out and pressed the MLCA/CCS Lions, and managed to cut the lead to just one point with 38 seconds remaining.

“We started trying to go too fast,” Ferguson said.

Up 57-54, MLCA/CCS senior Jeff Boorman picked up a loose ball that bounced out of the hands of a Sound Christian player and helped his team hold on for a 58-54 win.

“It was our defense that won the game,” Ferguson said. “We won by four, but our defense is what sealed it. What I preach all the time is that I want our guys to buy into the defense. Defense, defense, defense. It was awesome to see that happen. For it to be one of my seniors – because they were not going home tonight, that was their thought.”

Robertson led all scorers with 21 points in Wednesday night’s matchup.

“It’s not one player, it’s the whole team contributing,” Robertson said. “That’s why we won.”

MLCA/CCS moved on to face No. 3 DeSales on Thursday night at 7:15 p.m. The winner will advance to the state semifinals, while the loser will move to the fourth/sixth-place bracket.

Ian Bivona can be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.

Box Score

MLCA/CCS 13-20-11-14 58

Sound Chr. 17-14-5-18 54