#13 Cedar Park Christian (Bothell) 45- #4 Vashon Island 44
Todd Milles was right in predicting this was the Nisqually game to watch this season. It was a great night high school basketball Tuesday night in Bothell with plenty of drama as Cedar Park Christian (Bothell) senior 6’-5” guard, Trey Drechsel, powered up for a game winning layup with about 3 seconds left to give his team an improbable late comeback victory that put the Cedar Park Eagles (CPC) alone atop the 1A Nisqually League standings with a now 8-1 record in league play.
In the first half CPC's defense kept Vashon’s usual top scorers, junior Jessie Norton and sophomore Sam Yates, from finding any rhythm and holding the Vashon team to just 16 points, while most all of CPC's 25 first half points were on lay ups against a porous defense against inside cuts. Vashon Coach Andy Sears must have had a good halftime locker room speech, as Vashon came back with a 17 point 3rd quarter led by strong inside moves to the basket by senior Owen Brenno with contributions by Yates, while holding CPC to 1 each of a free throw, a field goal and a three pointer for just 6 points that quarter, giving Vashon a slim lead after 3 quarters.
CPC kept pace with Vashon in the 4thquarter of play. Vashon junior, Ian Stewart, seemingly put away the game on a pair of free throws on the other end of the court to put Vashon up by 4 points with about 10 seconds left. CPC hustled the ball down the court where Drechsel quickly landed a 3 pointer to close within 1. After the ball was inbounded by Vashon, CPC senior Isaiah Penchion stepped in front of the next pass on the sidelines with a steal, nearly tipping over out of bounds, but managed to keep his balance. He spotted Drechsel wide open under the basket and muscled through a pass with under 5 seconds remaining. After the Drechsel field goal put CPC up for good, Vashon's Yates failed to get a shot up in time before the scoreboard lights lit up at the final buzzer and the CPC student section rushed the court. After the game, CPC head coach Adam Lynch commented “This was a great team win. Our guys showed they have the heart of a champion and never quit. Our seniors played like seniors.”
If Vashon's one point loss last week to Eatonville to hand them their first defeat of the season was bitter, tonight's one point loss to CPC could be considered vitriolic, as they gave up both the league lead and their head to head tiebreaker advantage. While Vashon started the season an undefeated 10-0 that began with win over CPC by 23 points, Cedar Park’s season started bumpy. They went 0-4 in holiday tournament action, but since then, they have reeled off 6 straight league victories.
Vashon will not have a long time to think about this one, next playing January 24th against Seattle Christian. CPC will next face a difficult Charles Wright Academy team in Tacoma on the road on January 28th. They play their next home game in Bothell on Friday, Feb. 7 at 7:00PM vs. Cascade Christian.
Vashon - Brenno 15 Yates 9 Stewart 8 Chee 5 Norton 5 Tillman 2
Cedar Park - Drechsel 21 Lundberg 7 Penchion 6 McLaurin 6 Rankin 3 Anderson 2
Edit to correct grammar, next games schedule.
This post was edited on 1/21 11:37 PM by FilmDoesn'tLie
