Lynden goes cold at line, loses heartbreaker
Lynden trailed 51-50 with 35 seconds left ,and senior Elisa Kooiman headed to the free-throw line. The Lions were right where they wanted to be.
Uncharacteristically, Kooiman missed both, but the Lions got another chance with 2.1 seconds left when senior Lauren Zwiers was fouled after securing an offensive rebound. Again, the Lions were right where they wanted to be.
Zwiers missed both free throws, and Lynden lost a heartbreaker to Burlington-Edison 51-50 in the Class 2A regional round of the state tournament Saturday at Mount Vernon High School.
“If you were going to tell me that Kooiman and Zwiers are shooting two shots, we’d love to have that again,” Lynden coach Rob Adams said. “At the end of the day, everybody is going to make a big deal about those four free throws, but we hadn’t done our due diligence before that.”
Lynden t came out of the gate on fire, nailing four straight 3-pointers. Jasmyne Neria had two of them to lead the Lions in scoring in the first quarter with six of their 16 points. Neria finished with 13 points, tied for the team high with Ruby Vander Haak.
What really hurt Lynden was the post play of senior Rylee Gundersen. Even with 6-foot-4 Faith Dut guarding her, Gundersen dominated the paint with a game-high 15 points and multiple offensive rebounds. In the second quarter, Gundersen carried her team with half of the Tigers’ 16 points.
Lynden’s offense stalled in the second quarter as the Lions scored only eight points.
“The issue we’ve had all year is we play ‘I, I, I’ basketball instead of ‘we, we, we,’ ” Adams said. “For us, it’s not an X’s and O’s thing. If we get ourselves right mentally, I like our chances.”
Lynden trailed 30-24 at halftime but came out with renewed spirit on the defensive end. Lynden’s defense held the Tigers to six points in the third quarter, while the offense scored 10 points. Kooiman and Vander Haak each had three points for Lynden.
Lynden ended the game in the same fashion that it started, attempting to come back with 3-pointers. Neria hit one to make it 45-41, and after Katie King answered with her own 3 for Burlington, Zwiers buried a 3-point answer of her own.
Lynden will face Olympic in an elimination game at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday at the Yakima Valley SunDome.
This story was originally published February 25, 2017 at 10:18 PM with the headline "Lynden goes cold at line, loses heartbreaker."