Lynnwood left little doubt that it is one of the top teams in the state during Friday night’s game against crosstown rival Meadowdale.

The Royals jumped to an 18-0 lead at the end of the first quarter and didn’t let up the rest of the way en route to a decisive 65-21 victory in a Wesco 3A South girls basketball contest at Meadowdale High School.

“I liked that we played hard from the start of the game to the end of the game,” Lynnwood coach Everett Edwards said. “We’re always excited to get a win in our league.”

Junior Mikayla Pivec scored 20 of her game-high 24 points in the first half. Pivec was the only player on either team to score in double figures.

“I liked our hustle,” she said. “We went after the offensive glass really hard.”

For Meadowdale, Friday’s game was the sixth in the last 12 days and the end of a very trying two weeks.

“We’ve faced a lot of adversity all at the same time,” Meadowdale coach Marcus Merrifield said.

Injuries and illnesses have plagued the Mavericks, who have not had all 10 of their varsity players healthy and ready to play in any game this season. Merrifield knew that with only one returning varsity starter, Meadowdale likely would take some early-season lumps, especially against a team such as Lynnwood (2-0 in the league, 5-0 overall).

“By the end of the season if we make the steps we need to, we’re going to be a team that’s really tough,” Merrifield said. “Lynnwood is just a great team. They do so much with press and transition. They’ve got length. They do a good job of what they do well – scoring in transition, deflecting the basketball and disrupting anything you want to do.”

Not having all the players healthy at the same time has hurt the team, Merrifield said. “It’s really hard when you have all the different pieces moving all over the place. Once we’re healthy, we can really put some stuff together.”

The Royals lost two seniors, including point guard Jasmin Edwards, from last year. Senior Dani Hayes has stepped into the role of directing the offense. Hayes started off the Royals’ scoring in the first quarter with a 3-pointer.

“She set the tone with hitting that 3-point shot,” Edwards said. “She is an ultimate leader for us at both ends of the court and she’s very unselfish.”

Over the holiday break, Lynnwood faces some top competition at the Nike Interstate Shootout Dec. 27-30 in Lake Osweg, Ore. Meadowdale will be at the Rebel Challenge at Juanita High School, also Dec., 27-30.

“We’re off to a really good start so far,” Pivec said. “We’ll see how we’re actually doing in Oregon because they’ll be some good tests, some good teams there.”

Edwards is hoping for some tough games.

“We hope to face some adversity,” he said. “We hope to face challenges that will help to prepare us for our district tournament. … We try to schedule tough games and this is going to be a very challenging tournament.”

Merrifield is looking for the Mavericks (0-3, 3-5) to get healthy over the break and just continue to grow as a team.

“I’m really excited about them and how much they are going to grow,” Merrifield said. “They are a young team kind of figuring out what their roles are.

– Story and photos by David Pan