Passiveness proved to be deadly for the Class 1A Seattle Christian boys basketball team Tuesday, December 15, in a 67-53 loss at Class 2A Fife.

“We really backed down against the pressure to start,” admitted Warriors coach Shaun DeYager.

Capitalizing on turnovers and getting easy shot attempts, Fife quickly broke to a 7-0 lead before Michael Watts dropped in two free throws for the Warriors. Continuing the turnover trend, Seattle Christian (2-2 overall) fell back to a 21-2 first quarter deficit against the taller and crisply passing Trojans.

Blake Weber fired home a three-ball and Chris Holmes tallied a lay up at the buzzer as SCS penetrated the shadowing man-to-man defense to pull within 21-7.

Seattle Christian continued to fight hard, although the torrid Trojans kept up their prodigiously hot shooting to lead 41-23 at halftime and 57-36 after three quarters.

The Warriors refused to fold and flurried back to close the gap at the end. Mackinnon Simpson ignited the surge with a mixture of outside accuracy and inside moves for points. Seattle Christian was effective when it decided to attack the pressure instead of backing down.

“The guys got tired of playing from behind,” concluded DeYager. “Fife is athletic and that allowed them to get into our heads. The guys started taking it through the pressure instead of backing down. We learned from this and we will be more mentally ready to begin league.”

For SCS, Simpson’s furious fourth quarter led to a game high 24 points. Andy Lessig added eight points for the Warriors.

Thomas Darneille notched 14 points and Jack Murrey contributed 10 points for Fife.