Auburn Mountainview was unable to fend off an athletic Lakes boys basketball team, falling 30-22 in overtime in a mini-game tiebreaker Tuesday at Bonney Lake.
The win earns the Lancers the No. 1 seed out of the South Puget Sound League 3A into Friday’s sub-regional tournament. The Lions go in as the No. 2 seed and Enumclaw, which lost to Lakes 36-28 in the first tiebreaker contest of the evening, is No. 3.
Lakes, Auburn Mountainview and Enumclaw finished the regular season as SPSL 3A co-champions with 7-3 league records, forcing the tiebreakers, with each mini-game featuring two eight-minute halves.
The Lancers’ win over Enumclaw in the first mini-game earned them the chance to face the Lions in the No. 1 and 2 seeding game.
Auburn Mountainview shot out to a 8-0 lead to start the game but was unable to hold off Lakes in the second quarter.
“We had some offensive breakdowns and we missed some shots,” Lions coach Terry Johnson said.
After forcing the four-minute overtime period with a 18-18 tie, the Lancers opened with a Diondre Worthy 3-pointer and never looked back, outscoring the Lions 12-4 in the frame.
Worthy finished with a game-high nine points.
Domenic Rockey and Andrew Upchurch each had 6 points for Auburn Mountainview.
The Lions were also hampered by the loss of leading scorer JJ Lacy, who was still recuperating from a severe bloody nose he suffered during last Thursday’s overtime loss against Decatur.
“It was kind of a weird, freak thing that happened,” Johnson added. “He lost a lot of blood and hasn’t practiced since that game.
“That obviously made a difference,” Johnson added. “I actually was pretty pleased with the way we moved the ball. But give (Lakes) some credit. They made some very athletic plays defensively as well. We actually made some pretty good plays but they were able to recover athletically.”
The win earns Lakes another matchup with Enumclaw at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Auburn Mountainview.
The Lions will take on Seamount No. 2 Kennedy (12-2 league, 15-4 overall) at 5:30 p.m. Friday at Auburn Mountainview.
The tourney concludes Saturday.
