Prep girls basketball: Royals down Warriors in first round district playoff game

Mady Burdett (5) brings the ball down the court against Lynnwood's press
E-W’s Mady Burdett (5) brings the ball down the court against Lynnwood’s press. (Photos by Scott Williams)

While senior Mikayla Pivec doesn’t see herself as the driving offensive force of the undefeated and defending 3A state champion Lynnwood Royals girls basketball team, some may argue that point.

Pivec scored 31 points Saturday to pace the Royals to a 56-44 victory over the Edmonds-Woodway Warriors in a first round game of the Northwest District 1 3A Girls Basketball Tournament played at Lynnwood High School.

Pivec went 8-for-18 from the field and 15-for-16 from the free throw line Saturday to tally her 31 points and lead the Royals to the win.

Missy Peterson (44) drives to the hoop past Mikayla Pivec.
Missy Peterson (44) drives to the hoop past Mikayla Pivec.

“I just try to make shots when they are available to me,” Pivec said after the game.

With the victory, the Royals will next play in the second of two district semi-finals game scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 17, at Shorecrest High School in Shoreline. Lynnwood, the No. 1-seeded team in the tournament, will face No. 4-seeded Stanwood at 7:45 p.m. following the completion of the Glacier Peak-Arlington semi-final.

With a win on Wednesday, the Royals will clinch a spot in the regional round of the WIAA 3A State Girls Basketball Tournament later this month.

Edmonds-Woodway can still qualify for the regional round of the state tourney, but will now have to win three straight loser-out district games to do so, starting with a tilt against Ferndale on Wednesday, Feb. 17, at Ferndale High School.

Pivec (10) and EW's Courtney Simpson fight for the ball.
Pivec (10) and EW’s Courtney Simpson fight for the ball.

While Lynnwood is one of the teams favored to again win this year’s 3A state championship, the visiting Warriors didn’t back down from the defending champions on Saturday. E-W started the first round matchup going 4-for-4 from the field – including two three-pointers by senior Ally Burdett – to take an early 10-7 first quarter lead. Lynnwood wrestled the lead away halfway through the first eight minutes, but the Warriors fought back and took a 24-21 lead at the 4:29 mark of the second quarter on a Mady Burdett three-point jumper.

Edmonds-Woodway Coach Rebekah Wells liked the fearless spirit she saw in her squad on Saturday. “A team like Lynnwood can be scary, but a lot of the girls said, ‘I’m not scared of them anymore. We can play with them,’” Wells explained.

“I think they did well hanging in with them, but we didn’t make our shots in the end and we didn’t have enough poise in our offensive control,” she continued.

EW's coach, Rebekah Wells looks on as her team three point shot their way to an early lead in the first quarter.
EW’s coach, Rebekah Wells looks on as her team three point shot their way to an early lead in the first quarter.

Lynnwood took a 32-27 lead into the locker rooms at halftime, then built that margin up to 46-35 early in the fourth quarter. But the Warriors didn’t give up, cutting that lead to just four points, 46-42, near the midway point of the final period. The Royals responded by clamping down on defense and only allowing E-W to score two points on a Missy Peterson lay-in the rest of game.

Lynnwood Coach Everett Edwards was relieved to walk away with the hard-fought triumph. “This was a very difficult first round game for us,” he said. “Usually when you win your league and you have an opportunity to get a first round (home) game, it’s not as challenging. The last two or three years we have played against (Edmonds)-Woodway and they’ve played well against us. We’ve been able to get the victories, but they’ve played well.”

“They shot the ball very well,” Edwards said of the Warriors. “We tried a number of different defenses and they were able to have success, but ultimately we played well enough to get the win.”

 002 - EW's Missy Peterson (44) with the rebound in the first quarter.

002 – EW’s Missy Peterson (44) with the rebound in the first quarter.

Pivec was the only Royal to score in double-figures as the rest of the squad only converted 10-of-36 field goal attempts in the game.

The Warriors were led in scoring by the 12 points of Maddie Tudor, while Peterson added 11 points in the loss.

While some may have thought Lynnwood would have an easy time getting back to the 3A state tournament again this year, Pivec offered this warning: “It’s never a given. We have to come out every night – we cannot expect anything,” she said. “We know we have a target on our back based upon what we did last year, so we try to go out every night and play our game.”

To view the entire Northwest District 1 3A Girls Basketball Tournament bracket, click https://www.wescoathletics.com/tournament.php?tournament_id=1794&sport=12.
Prep Girls Basketball: Edmonds-Woodway at Lynnwood, Feb. 13

Edmonds-Woodway           17       10       8        9        —         44
Lynnwood                 20       12       12       12       —         56

Edmonds-Woodway scoring: Maddie Tudor 12, Missy Peterson 11, Mady Burdett 8, Ally Burdett 6, Adrienne Poling 5, Marivel Ortega 2, Isabel Callen, Ingrid Fosberg, Courtney Simpson

Lynnwood scoring: Mikayla Pivec 31, Kaprice Boston 9, Reilly Walsh 6, Jordyn Edwards 4, Kelsey Rogers 4, Taylor Fahey 2, Rachel Walsh

Records: Edmonds-Woodway 12-10 overall; Lynnwood 21-0 overall

Edmonds-Woodway next game: versus Ferndale, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 7 p.m. at Ferndale High School (loser-out game of Northwest District 1 3A Girls Basketball Tournament)

Lynnwood next game: versus Stanwood, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 7:45 p.m. at Shorecrest High School (semi-final game of Northwest District 1

— By Doug Petrowski

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