The Edmonds-Woodway boys basketball team’s chance to join the Warrior girls at the state tournament in the Tacoma Dome next weekend ended with a 73-61 loss to the O’Dea Fighting Irish Saturday night at the Mountlake Terrace gym.

In a game that saw a combined 55 fouls called, the Warriors missed more than half of their attempts, many of them on the front end of a one-and-one. As a result, Edmonds-Woodway came up on the short end of the winner-to-state regional playoff game.

“Our fouls were physical and theirs were more touch,” said Warrior coach Robert Brown. “But in the end, we were in the double bonus before they were and we just didn’t make them.   We shoot 70 percent as a team on the year, so to shoot below 50 just doesn’t cut it.”

The first few minutes proved to be a precursor of how the night might go for E-W as in the first 90 seconds of the game, not only did the Warriors pick up four personal fouls, but they lost senior leader Jordan Rice to a knee injury. Rice would not return. Still, the first quarter was the best of the night for the Warriors as David Woodard and Tre’var Holland paced the team to a 16-10 lead after one.

The second quarter was all O’Dea for the first three minutes as the Irish scored the first 11 points of the period to take a five-point lead. Woodard and Ali Gaye combined to score the next six points for E-W and the Warriors gained some momentum, but the Irish maintained a three-point lead heading into the half.

Woodard and Holland led the Warriors with nine first-half points, while Michael Carter paced the Irish with 13.

The physical nature of the game started to wear on the Warriors in the third quarter as both teams quickly garnered multiple fouls and it became evident that the game might well be decided from the charity stripe. “We were never able to get a consistent flow going,” Brown said. “Never able to get into any kind of offensive rhythm.”

E-W took what would prove to be its last lead of the game with just under five minutes remaining in the third quarter as Holland made a pair of free throws as well as a lay-in to give the Warriors a 35-34 advantage.

Then O’Dea’s Carter and Quin Barnard began to take control of the game for the Irish. While the Warriors tried to keep the game within reach, they were unable to take advantage of going to the free throw line 13 times, making only three points as O’Dea extended its lead to eight points after three.

The Irish scored the first two baskets of the fourth quarter and E-W would never get any closer than nine points. Noah Becker had a strong final period for the Warriors, scoring six points, but it was no match for O’Dea’s Carter, who scored 12 of what would prove to be a game-high 32 points.

The Warriors who scored over 75 points in the majority of their games were held to their second lowest point total of the season. “We started out good, but then because of our fouls, our rotations got messed up and we just couldn’t get it going,” said Brown.

The Warriors were led by Holland with 19 followed by Woodard with 14 and Becker with 10. Carter, who came into the game averaging 17, nearly doubled that with his 32 for O’Dea, followed by Barnard with 12.

The Warriors ended the season having lost only three games, and Saturday’s game marked the final game for four Edmonds-Woodway seniors: Brady Edwards, Rice, Woodard and Grygoriy Lozynskyy. Brown thanked the players for their efforts but is already looking forward to next season. “We’ll get back at this spring and summer and be ready to build on it next year, ” said Brown. Sophomore Kam Eck, who saw significant minutes Friday night, left with this thought: “It’s not going to end this way next year.”

Edmonds-Woodway: 16-13-13-17-61 Holland 19, Woodward 14, Becker 10, Edwards 6, Seare 3, Gaye 3, Peterson 3, Acholonu 2, Eck 2, Cooper, Lozynskyy, Rice

O’ Dea: 10-22-19-22-73: Carter 32, Barnard 12, Smith 8, Hansen 8, McAloon 6, Williams 5, Johnson 2, Jones

— By Jeff Smarr