Number 1 state ranked Federal Way used a 19-5 third quarter run to do away with Auburn-Riverside in a South Puget Sound League North opening season basketball game for a 75-60 home victory Friday.

Federal Way, No. 1 in the Seattle Times’ preseason boys basketball poll, improved to 1-0, fresh off a second place state finish last February. The Eagles lost to Ferris of Spokane in the WIAA championship game.

A-R dropped to 0-1.

The Eagles got that third quarter run going that did in A-R, only after key Eagle players sitting on the bench got back in the game. Both seniors, Andre Barrington and Michael Hale, received two fouls each early on in the second quarter and had to sit, allowing A-R to come back to take a one-point lead, 40-39, at halftime. Federal Way led, 31-17, midway through the second quarter before Barrington and Hale had to leave.

“We had foul trouble after our early lead,” said Eagles head coach Jerome Collins. “That changed the course of what we were doing.”

Having Barrington out was especially tough, because he is a defensive madman, marking teams’ top players. When he brings it...the Eagles’ tone is set in that department. He was out, so he couldn’t bring it. Hale is also frenetic on ‘D’. The Decatur transfer can also bring the ball down the floor as the point guard -- with the best of them.

“I have a rule, we don’t play (players) with two fouls,” said Collins. “So that was a lot of senior leadership for us out of the game. “We are a relatively young team. Take out Barrington and Hale and there’s a lot of youth on the floor.”

The Eagles’ youth did not take on A-R’s sharp shooters so well, having its lead, 31-17, with 5:30 left in the second quarter completely go away the final minutes of that frame. A-R -- with Hale hitting the bench around the 5:30 mark and Barrington picking up a second foul a little earlier -- went on a 23-8 run to end the second quarter.

“Andre and Mike out of the game from foul trouble early hurt,” said Jeff Forbes, a senior captain on the Eagles who was the only senior starter left out on the floor with Barrington and Hale gone.

But the quick way away from that road leading to perdition --losing -- would most certainly dust the Eagles’ No.1 ranking --was to get its eternally awesome defensive pressure at work. Collins employs that masterfully, at times in games, and most teams don’t recover. Leading to a perfect number of seven turnovers in the third quarter, while FW committed but two, was the key fact in a close halftime score being no more. Hale opened with a drive and foul shot. Cole Dickerson, the Eagles’ 6-7 junior wing, was the man after that with a couple inside buckets to give the Eagles a 46-43 lead with 3:35 left in the third quarter. A-R made a layup next to cut the Eagles’ lead to 46-45. But not only did the Eagles go on that aforementioned 19-5 third quarter run, they also completely shut down A-R’s offense with great Eagles’ defense the final three minutes of the third frame. How many did A-R score the final three minutes?

Zero.

Federal Way scored 12.

How the break-out third quarter started scoring-wise was 6-6 senior Jemini Davis, off the bench, hitting a three-pointer. And 6-10 sophomore JT Koontz, a transfer from Oregon, knocking in a short jumper to make it, 51-45, with 1:25 left in the third. Barrington stole a pass after that and dished to Dickerson, who found Hale running to the basket to make it 53-45. Forbes capped off this huge game-changing run with a drive to the rim, making it, and making the free throw bonus for a 56-45 lead.

So, a 12-0 run to end the third more than sealed A-R’s fate in this one, with pressure defense again led by Barrington, Hale, and Forbes key to that complete turnaround of a halftime tie to a fly, fly away third for the Eagles.

Scoring was balanced in this decisive third quarter. Dickerson hit seven, Hale five, Jemini Davis three, JT Koontz four and Forbes two.

It was all Eagles in the fourth quarter, as this one was over way sooner than this quarter expired -- probably about the time with seven minutes left in the fourth that Hale served up Dickerson from far away for an alley-oop SLAM!

Barrington slammed the nail on the coffin with a coast-to-coast taking of the round ball off a missed A-R free throw, with 3:00 left to make it 69-51.

A-R trailed the Eagles, 18-8, in this game to start the first quarter five minutes in before running off three straight buckets to trim the Eagles’ lead to 18-14. Hale nailed a three-pointer to end the first quarter with the lead at 21-14.

The lead continued to balloon until Hale and Barrington went out with two fouls apiece in the second -- two and a half minutes into the second quarter. So for the final 5:30, what did A-R do? Shoot remarkably well. They shot 4-for-6 from three-point range and also shot well, at 5-for-6 from the floor. The Eagles countered with 1-for-4 three-point shooting.

Free throws were a wash pretty much. The Eagles made 5-for-9 and A-R shot in 4-for-4. The nine extra points in threes was the difference.

“I thought they did a great job shooting the ball,” said Collins. “They played hard.”

Collins also noted that A-R already played two games prior to this one so his team was still getting the kinks out.

“It was our first game, their third,” said Collins. The problems were there, especially in that comeback of A-R that saw the Ravens outscore the Eagles, 26-18, as the Eagles committed five turnovers to A-R’s two.

“We all had the jitters and stuff,” said Dickerson. “After halftime, we came out with more intensity as a team.”

Forbes spoke of why maybe A-R could shoot so hot from three-point land in the second quarter and get back in this game.

“We left too many shooters open,” said Forbes.

Dickerson led all scorers with 22 points as Hale and Forbes hit 14 each.