Updated with Thursday’s results

By Mike Allende
Holiday tournament time has reached the world of high school basketball and the Edmonds-Woodway boys’ and girls’ basketball teams are in remarkably similar spots.

The Warrior girls are 3-2 in the Wesco 4A South and 5-3 overall while the boys are 3-2 and 4-3. Both are in third place, with the boys trailing undefeated Jackson and 4-1 Kamiak and the girls behind unbeaten Lynnwood and 4-1 Jackson.

This week brings a break from Wesco play, but no real rest. On Thursday, the E-W boys defeated Ingraham 72-60 in the first game of the Bothell Holiday Tournament at Bothell High School. Henry Olson, with 12 points, five rebounds and two blocked shots, was named the Warrior Radio Player of the Game for that contest.

The girls play perennial power Auburn Riverside at 11:30 a.m. Friday on the first day of the Les Schwab Christmas Classic at Kennedy Catholic High School. The other teams are Top-5 squad Inglemoor and host Kennedy. Warrior Radio plans to broadcast that game live.

“It’s a good time for our team to play this kind of competition,” Warriors girls coach Duane Hodges said. “We’ve lost three games to three good teams in Issaquah, Lynnwood and Jackson. But we’ve played well, we’re shooting well, we’ve rebounded fairly decently and our freshmen have played nicely.”
Edmonds has been led by guard Natalie Kasper, averaging 15.8 points, and post Sidney Eck, scoring 13.7. Kasper had 32 points in a win over Mountlake Terrace while Eck had 28 against Issaquah and 20 against Jackson. Hodges said key will be a consistent third scorer, something he hopes to find in the tournament.

“Playing back-to-back games like this will help prepare us for later in the season when you don’t have a lot of time to rest and prepare,” Hodges said. “You just have to go with what you do well because you really can’t game-plan.”

The Warrior boys have been in tight games most of the season, outscoring opponents by an average of just 6 points. Those close contests should pay off as Edmonds is learning how to compete in pressure situations.