In the biggest games, it’s often the role players who make the biggest difference, and in the Northwest Conference’s biggest game, it was the “other guys” who led the Lynden girls basketball team to an impressive 60-35 victory over Lynden Christian on Saturday, Feb. 1.
The victory lifted the No.1-ranked and defending Class 2A state champion Lions to 19-0 overall and 12-0 in the NWC. The loss dropped the No.1-ranked 1A Lyncs to 16-3 overall and 11-1 in league.
There’s one more week and two more regular-season games for both teams so anything is possible, but barring something shocking, Saturday afternoon’s game before a standing room only crowd at LC was for the league title and bragging rights in town.
“It feels good,” said Lynden sophomore Lexi Hermanutz. “It’s always good to beat LC.”
The Lynden boys held a big lead and then held on to defeat Lynden Christian in their big game Saturday night. Check it out at Lynden boys win.
The Lions did it with their depth and defense, their calling cards all season.
With Lynden all-staters Finley Parcher and Payton Mills being the focus of LC’s defensive attention, the Lions got 14 points from junior Rian Stephan, 13 from senior Kiki York, and 6 from Hermanutz.
Parcher and Mills, of course, got their points — 11 for Parcher and 9 for Mills — but each of them averages about 20 points a game. Which says a lot about Lynden Christian’s own defense.
But it was the five Lynden starters — especially shutdown defender York and long-armed Hermanutz — who led the Lions’ ferocious man-to-man defense.
York got the toughest assignment as usual, and she held LC all-league guard Ella Fritts to 8 points. Meanwhile, the 5-foot-11 Hermanutz made every LC pass her target, coming up with 8 steals and 2 blocked shots, and helping disrupt the Lyncs’ offense.
And every one of the Lions who played helped take away Lynden Christian’s favorite weapon — the 3-point shot — only giving up three for the game to the best shooting team in the league. The Lions’ pressure eventually wore down the Lyncs, who only managed two points in the fourth quarter.
“LC presents a unique problem because they spread the floor and move the ball so fast,” said Lynden coach Rob Adams. “I thought we did a tremendous job eliminating wide-open 3s. Every girl played a big part in that.”
As he likes to do, Adams singled out someone besides the stars and Saturday it was senior Melanie Anderson, who only scored two points, but guarded Fritts and LC’s other shooters.
“She’s physical and strong … our kind of kid,” said Adams. “She probably averages three minutes a game but played about 14 today. And she played lights out defensively. ”
While the score looked lopsided, the Lyncs stayed right with the Lions into the third quarter. Lynden led by 12 at the half only because York tossed up a bomb at the buzzer that went in, and when Fritts sank two free throws and got free for a bucket to fuel an 8-2 LC run, the Lyncs had a chance to cut the margin to three.
But by the end of the third quarter, the Lions had built the lead back to 13 and were never threatened after that.
“I was really proud of how hard we played and that we battled together,” said Lyncs coach Brady Bomber. “They took us out of our rhythm especially in the halfcourt, and we had opportunities that we didn’t capitalize on.”
Senior Allison Shumate led the Lyncs with 14 points and while Fritts only had 8 points — which isn’t bad considering she had the game’s toughest task, guarding Parcher almost the whole game — the other LC starters only combined for six points.
Bomber wasn’t disappointed with his team’s effort, especially knowing bigger goals were still in front of them.
“This was a great rehearsal for what we’ll see over the next few weeks,” he said of the upcoming playoffs. “The environment … seeing teams that know you well.”
Shumate agreed.
“This was just a bump in the road, and it will prepare us for the hard games ahead,” the senior post said. “It was definitely a challenge (trying to beat Lynden), and we’ll have to make sure to adjust better next time.”
Of course, there won’t be a next time this season since they will begin district play in their own classifications, which start on Feb. 10.
But both teams saw Saturday’s game as a warm-up for the playoffs.
“This is a good start to postseason,” said Hermanutz. “It will get us ready for the big games.” And even with a big win in the big game, will Adams still find something to criticize, if only to push them harder?
“Most likely,” she said with a smile.
Both teams wrap up the regular season next week. Lynden Christian is at Anacortes on Tuesday and at Ferndale on Thursday, while Lynden hosts Anacortes on Tuesday and Nooksack Valley on Friday.
Besides being a city rivalry game, it also was a Coaches Versus Cancer contest, when the NWC teams honor cancer survivors and raise funds for cancer research. The honorary coaches were Karen Petersen, a Lynden High School teacher, and Karla Mellema, a former LC player and mother of LC sophomore guard Ellie Pierce.
Lynden 60, Lynden Christian 35
Lynden 19 14 13 14—60
Lynden Christian 13 8 12 2—35
Lynden: Bowler 2, Hermanutz 6, Nyhoff, Newcomb, Slayton, R. Stephan 13, I. Stephan 3, Anderson 2, York 14, Parcher 11, Mills 9, Basart.
Lynden Christian: D. Dykstra 3, T. Dykstra, Hernandez, Fritts 8, Scott 3, Shumate 14, Van Loo, Yun 3, Pierce 4, Eshuis.
