Zillah shoots down Lynden Christian in 1A semifinal

Lynden Christian knew Zillah’s Trey Delp was a dangerous man. The Lyncs didn’t expect Nate Whitaker to deliver a knockout punch to their state title hopes Friday night in the Class 1A State Tournament semifinals.

Whitaker hit three consecutive 3-pointers in the middle of the second period, then hit back-to-back jumpers in the fourth period after the Lyncs had clawed back into contention, vaulting the Leopards to a 72-57 victory and into Saturday night’s championship game against Freeman.

The Lyncs, 21-6, will play King’s for a third-place trophy at 1 p.m. Saturday. Lynden Christian will bring home its 25th trophy in program history.

“We actually wanted to stop Whitaker and Delp and they had 24 of their first 39 points,” Lyncs coach Roger DeBoer said afterwards. “Unfortunately, we struggled a little bit to find them.”

Whitaker finished with 17 points, 11 in the first half. But his five-shot outburst – in the span of less than two minutes on the clock – broke the contest open and gave Zillah its second win over Lynden Christian in as many years. The teams met in the regional round last year at nearby Eisenhower High School.

Lynden Christian played even with Zillah for the first seven minutes, then the Leopards made their first burst – eight points on three field goals – to open an eight-point lead. A long three by Colson Bajema briefly brought the Lyncs back to within five, 20-15.

The next burst came from Whitaker about two minutes into the second period. He hit a driving lay-in and then the aforementioned trio of treys and suddenly Zillah had a 14-point lead, 35-21, just halfway through the period.

The 3-point field goal – a staple of the Lyncs offense – betrayed them in the loss. LC hit just five of 22 from behind the stripe.

“You’ve got to give Zillah credit for that,” DeBoer said. “They defended us incredibly well. They made us take shots that we weren’t necessarily comfortable with.”

Zillah also scored 22 points off turnovers.

“They had a fantastic game. They played like veterans and we gave them everything we had, but tonight they were a little bit better than us,” DeBoer said.

The Lyncs head to Saturday’s trophy game with the knowledge that just playing on the season’s final day is a significant accomplishment – one shared by only five other teams. DeBoer said that he’s appreciative of that and knows that Friday’s loss does nothing to diminish what the squad accomplished this season.

“Our goal was to try to be here as long as we possibly could,” DeBoer said. “We made the season last as long as it possibly could. We knew the chips were not stacked in our favor. I’m incredibly happy with this team.”

Bajema and Grant Rubbert scored 19 and 15 points, respectively, and both had six rebounds for the Lyncs.

This story was originally published March 3, 2017 at 11:35 PM with the headline "Zillah shoots down Lynden Christian in 1A semifinal."