BY GERARDO BOLONG
Contributing Writer

BELLEVUE - Ball sharing and down-to-the wire persistence joined in harmony for a Seattle Christian Nisqually League 1A boys basketball win at Bellevue Christian on Tues., Feb. 10.

Leading 53-51, Seattle Christian in bounded from back court by throwing a home run pass to Taggart Anderson who was fouled while driving to the basket with 18.7 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
After Anderson dropped home two free throws, the home Vikings missed an outside shot and had to foul the Warriors.

Jeffrey Sutherland converted the first of two charity tosses to close out the game which at one time appeared to be comfortably in hand for Seattle Christian.

"We came out really hard," said a pleased SC head coach Shaun DeYager. "Intensity was high and no matter who came into the game for us, they played well. Everybody contributed. When Bellevue Christian came back, they hit some big shots and we missed a couple of rebounds. Our guys really battled back after they got close."

Controlling the game
Seattle Christian reaped the benefits of sharing the ball immediately by driving to an 8-0 lead while finding players open for high percentage shots. The lead ballooned to as high as 16 points at 23-7 in the second quarter before Bellevue Christian narrowed the halftime margin to 26-15.

The Warriors increased their command to 17 points twice in the third quarter and held a 44-25 control heading into the fourth quarter.

Vikings rally
Bellevue Christian began finding many open shot looks, including 3-point shots to narrow its deficit to 49-39 as the fourth quarter beckoned.

Warriors turn back rally
Anderson's kick out pass to Bryan Botka for a three-pointer stretched the Warrior margin back to 12 points at 52-39, but Luke Postma's trey triggered a nine-point Viking surge as the Warriors had trouble holding on to the ball. Postma's interception and basket trimmed the SCS lead to 52-48 with just more than one minute in the quarter. Four seconds later, Anderson made one of two free throw chances.

Missed free throws by each team continued until Ricky Hatate nailed a 3-pointer for Bellevue Christain to make the score 53-51 with 24.3 seconds left as the lead in to the final seconds.

Botka was the game high scorer at 15 points on 7 of 8 standard field goal shooting. Ryan Gifford was steady for 11 points and five steals while Anderson scored 10 points with seven rebounds and four assists.
Hatate led the Vikings in scoring with 11 points as Postma had 10 points and six rebounds.