Lancers Advance to State Championship With Defense

Dunks are spectacular. Three-point shots are fun to see, but playing good defense wins championships, said Lakes head coach Jojo Rodriguez after his team earned the right to compete for the Class 3A state title against Bellevue with a 54-48 victory on Friday at the Tacoma Dome.

Defense is the only constant in basketball. It's easier to have a good game offensively than a good game defensively, because team is about heart and the desire to impose your will against the other team. Lakes has played outstanding defense throughout the tournament and it showed Friday night against a well-disciplined Braves team.

Kamiakin's offense was lights out during the first half, but knew eventually it would cool down. But the Lancers' defense remained steady at work. Lakes senior Carl Flamer said their defense was more key in the victory.

"We have a lot of speed on our team and that helped us out a lot," he said. "They were pretty big size wise but us being able to jump helped out a lot."

Kamiakin scored just four points in the third quarter and five in overtime. Lakes' offense was cold in the second half as well. Lancers point guard Andrew Holloway scored the team's first basket in the second half with 1 minute, 32 seconds in the third quarter.

When shots don't fall a team's defense can either rise up or the lack of productivity can affect the heart and intensity on defense, but that wasn't the case against the Braves. In fact, when Lakes' offense struggled it seemed like the defense played even harder.

Kamiakin went 5-for-15 in the second half and shot 14 percent from the field in overtime.

Lakes senior Taylor McAllister said he felt like their defense stepped up.

"The first half they were hitting a lot of 3s, so we just tried to not help out as much and contain our own guys," McAllister said who held Kamiakin's Justin Pedley to 10 points in the second half after scoring 16 in the first half including consecutive three-point shots to start the game. "We just tried to make it hard for them."

I've enjoyed watching the dunks, speed, athleticism and unique personalities on the Lakes boys basketball team but against high quality teams like O'Dea and Kamiakin, its defense was the most important part of its success.

Now if the team's defense can step up just one more time they will be state champions, the first one in school history.