2A Boys: Bellingham, Sehome Come Up Short In Final Games

Sehome couldn’t generate enough offense and Bellingham couldn’t muster enough defense and when the Class 2A District 1 boys consolation games were done Monday, Feb. 12, so were the Mariners’ and Bayhawks’ seasons.

Sehome went cold in the fourth quarter and couldn’t keep up with Lakewood, losing the night’s first game, 53-43, at Mount Vernon High. With the loss, the Mariners finish the year 11-12.

In the nightcap, Bellingham put up the points but couldn’t stop the high-flying Seahawks of Anacortes from scoring more, falling, 78-60, to finish with a 12-11 record.

Lakewood (14-9) and Anacortes (18-5) will play each other in another loser-out game on Thursday with the winner facing off Saturday with the loser of Wednesday’s Lynden-Cedarcrest district championship game for the district’s final state berth.

NEXT UP TUESDAY: The Lummi Nation teams are in the Class 1B tri-district quarterfinals with state berths at stake. The Lummi boys host Crescent at 6 p.m. and the Lady Blackhawks are in Tacoma to play Evergreen Lutheran. In 2A girls consolation action at Mount Vernon High, Sehome takes on Anacortes at 5:30 p.m. and Squalicum faces Burlington-Edison at 7:15 p.m. For all the action, check out Whatcom Hoops.

Here’s the results from Monday night’s games:

Sehome Fades In Final Period To Lakewood, 53-43

The sixth-seeded Mariners were tied at 39-all early in the fourth quarter and seemed on the verge of upsetting the fourth-seeded Cougars. But Sehome only managed four points the rest of the way and was eliminated, 53-43.

“Tonight we were frustrated offensively,” said Sehome coach Brad Jackson, who praised the Cougars and their head coach Anthony Wiederkehr, who played for Jackson at Western Washington University from 2007 to 2012. “And they’re difficult to play against because they can really shoot.”

In fact, through the first three quarters, the Mariners’ hustling defense had stymied Lakewood and its array of long-distance shooters, only trailing by two going into the final period.

And despite only scoring two points through the first six minutes of the fourth quarter, Sehome was still only down, 47-41. But several Sehome 3-point attempts in the final two minutes were off the mark as the Cougars hung on for the win.

Leading the Mariners with 11 points and his game-long hustle was sophomore point guard Nolan Wright. “He brings it every night,” said Jackson. “He’s a great competitor.”

Freshman guard Quincy Tanovan added 10 points for Sehome including a pair of 3-pointers, sophomore post Cole Turrell had 8 points inside including six of Sehome’s eight fourth-quarter points, and senior Sawyer Fleming came off the bench to spark Sehome with 7 points.

Despite the season-ending loss, Jackson found positives for his squad, which will graduate four seniors — Austin McKay, Mason McLin, Braddock Duckworth, and Fleming.

“We talked about attitude and effort,” said Jackson, who only returned three reserves from last year’s state team. “We had a lot of guys who hadn’t played a lot. We had our ups and downs, but this team learned how to fight.”

Lakewood, which avenged a 61-51 loss to Sehome on Jan. 5, was led by senior Ben Rucker, who had 20 points and four of the Cougars’ six 3-pointers.

Lakewood 53, Sehome 43

Sehome 6 19 10 8—43

Lakewood 10 12 15 16—53

Sehome: Wright 11, McLin 2, Fleming 7, McAfee, McKay 1, Tanovan 10, C. Duckworth 4, Turrell 8.

Lakewood: Stoddard 16, Rucker 20, Isam, Espe 2, Hoekendorf, Stacey 4, Irvin 2, C. Greenland 9.

Bellingham Can’t Slow Anacortes In 78-60 Loss

The Bayhawks knew stopping Anacortes all-state guard Davis Fogle was nearly impossible so they wanted to stop the rest of the Seahawks. Unfortunately for Bellingham, Anacortes got enough production from the other Seahawks to oust the Bayhawks, 78-60.

“I thought we had a good plan,” said Bellingham coach Brad McKay. “And we had the opportunities to be right there with them. But we just couldn’t finish.”

When Fogle fueled a 14-2 run to finish the first quarter and Anacortes went up by 13, Bellingham appeared in trouble. But the Bayhawks outscored Anacortes in the second quarter and had several chances to cut the lead to single digits before going into halftime behind by a dozen.

Unfortunately for Bellingham, they couldn’t prevent another Seahawks’ barrage and a 27-point Anacortes third quarter put them in too big of a hole even though they again outscored Anacortes in the fourth quarter.

“We had a couple of runs, but no matter what we did defensively, we didn’t have an answer for Fogle,” said McKay. “We had to score to stay with them and were always chasing them. And we aren’t built to do that.”

The Bayhawks’ leader to the end was senior guard Wyatt Stephan, who finished with 21 points in addition to running the offense, breaking the press, and trying to guard Fogle.

“Wyatt led the way, but all five seniors were instrumental in us winning more games than we have since 2006,” said McKay before individually praising Stephan and fellow seniors Satchel Craig, Elias Togagae, Aiden Carpenter, and Jesse Harward. “We’ll miss them all.”

Sophomore Joe Harward had 14 points and fired-up Bellingham with his hard-nosed defense. Big brother Jesse added 11 points, and junior Kincade Vanhouten had 8 points and two 3-pointers as did Stephan.

Fogle, a 6-foot-6 junior, would finish with 37 points, but the Seahawks also got big games from sophomore Micah Dickison with 17 points and junior Jake Andrew with 13 points.

Anacortes 78, Bellingham 60

Bellingham 9 17 13 21—60

Anacortes 22 16 27 13—78

Bellingham: Stephan 21, Van Hofwegen 1, Togagae 2, Craig, Vanhouten 8, Je. Harward 11, Wright 3, Jo. Harward 14, Johnson, Carpenter.

Anacortes: c. Houston, Swapp 6, Willoughby, Fogle 37, Moore, Andrew 13, Barton 2, Miller, Morgenthaler 3, K. Houston, Harrington, Dickison 17.

CLASS 2A DISTRICT 1 TOURNAMENT

Monday, Feb. 12

At Mount Vernon

Lakewood 53, Sehome 43 (loser out)

Anacortes 78, Bellingham 60 (loser out)

Wednesday, Feb. 14

At Mount Vernon