Big second half leads Lynden Christian into 1A semifinals
After a sluggish start against a determined Newport squad, Lynden Christian sprinted into the quarterfinals of the Class 1A boys state basketball tournament on Thursday with a 57-38 win.
Lynden Christian, 21-5, will play Zillah at 9 p.m. Friday. That game is a rematch of last year’s regional round, in which the Lyncs traveled to Yakima and lost a virtual home game to the Leopards at nearby Eisenhower High School. The winner will advance to the championship game.
Newport, making its first tournament appearance since 1980, led at the end of the first quarter, 13-10. But the Lyncs scored the first seven points of the second period and Colson Bajema’s 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer seemed to energize the Lyncs and their boisterous fans.
“We talked at halftime that we were right on that teetering edge,” Lyncs coach Roger DeBoer said. “The game at that point could go one way or the other and the big momentum shot at the end of the half had us in a good spot.”
Lynden Christian open the third period with nine straight points, including a deep bomb from the left wing by Bajema, and Newport was done.
“We talked about how important that first four minutes of the second half was and they were really excited and knew that they had to get it done then,” DeBoer said. “They knew that was the most important part of the game.”
Bajema led all scorers with 21 points. Cristian Colwell had 12 points.
“There is no moment too big for him,” DeBoer said of Bajema’s first game at the state tournament. “He doesn’t have a lot of high, up and down emotions. He just plays.”
DeBoer said his team was focused on the job at hand with Newport even with Zillah looming today.
“That wasn’t a problem. We know that we have a long ways to go as a team and there’s just no way we can look beyond anywhere we are at,” he said.
“We’ve got a lot of things we need to continue to improve on. We’re super young and they were really trying to focus on the task at hand, get tonight over with and now we can think about the monumental task we’ve got moving forward.”
Lynden Christian 57, Newport 38
Newport | 13 | 8 | 7 | 10 | 38 |
Lynden Christian | 11 | 18 | 19 | 9 | 57 |
NEWPORT — Zorica 0-3 0-0 0, Pancho 2-7 1-2 6, Owen 0-2 0-0 0, Leslie 2-10 1-4 7, Danny Bradbury 9-11 0-0 20, Smith 1-6 0-0 2, Ownbey 0-0 0-0 0, Hastings 0-0 0-0 0, Moorhead 1-5 0-0 2, Warner 0-0 1-2 0. Totals 15-44 3-8 38.
LYNDEN CHRISTIAN — Riddle 2-6 0-0 5, Colson Bajema 8-16 1-2 21, Cristian Colwell 5-7 2-2 12, Rubbert 3-8 0-1 6, DeJong 1-3 0-0 2, DeVries 3-5 0-0 9, Lancaster 0-0 0-0 0, Bouwman 0-0 0-0 0, Bos 0-0 0-0 0, Jansen 0-0 0-0 0, Westra 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 23-47 3-5 57.
3-point goals - Newport 5-16 (Zorica 0-2, Pancho 1-3, Owen 0-1, Leslie 2-5, Bradbury 2-2, Smith 0-3); LC 8-18 (Riddle 1-4, Bajema 4-9, DeVries 3-5). Fouled-out - George DeJong. Rebounds - Newport 22 (Leslie 6); LC 34 (Rubbert 8). Assists - Newport 4 (Pancho 3); LC 13 (Rubbert 8). Turnovers - Newport 11, LC 10. Total fouls - Newport 12, LC 13.
This story was originally published March 2, 2017 at 10:58 PM with the headline "Big second half leads Lynden Christian into 1A semifinals."