The Lindbergh Eagles visited the Tyee Totems in a Seamount league conference game on Friday, January 25th. Going into the game, Tyee had a 1-10 conference record and 2-14 overall, while Lindbergh’s record is 7-4 conference, 9-8 overall.

The first time these teams met was on January 7th. Lindbergh dominated that game with a final score of 72 to Tyee’s 31. Not one Tyee player scored in double figures.

This game was different - Tyee did what they did not do the last time: keep the game close. “We faced them a couple weeks ago,” Tyee coach A. J. Campanelli said. “We had a really tough time handling their defensive pressure and traps. We turned the ball over a lot, so we worked on passing the ball early before we got traps and then attacking after that. We wanted to keep the ball off the sidelines, keep it in the middle of the court. We wanted to work on stopping their big guy [Chris Harraway], but we weren’t really quite able to do that.”

I don't know if it was overconfidence on Lindbergh’s part from their previous game with Tyee that kept this game close, but I do know Tyee played with confidence - played smart and aggressive to stay in this game.

It was not till the 5:44 mark in the first quarter that Tyee scored the first points of the game. At the end of that quarter the score was tied at 12. The second quarter had Lindbergh pulling away, taking an eight point lead into the halftime break.

So what did coach Campanelli tell his players at halftime? “We talked a lot about the short corners. Getting behind the zone defense, to have our guys in the middle cut to the short corner and draw the defense there and open up the middle with the penetration and for the opposite wing to cut in.”

In the third quarter, Lindbergh increased their lead to a 16-point margin as the scoreboard read 35-51. Was the fourth quarter going to be the same or did Tyee still have some fight left in them?

Well, the fourth quarter started changing for Tyee as they scored some quick points, which brought it back to a competitive game. To the enjoyment of the Tyee fans, Anthony Summers cut Lindbergh's lead to only four, 49-53 with 3:19 left on the clock. Lindbergh scored another two points at the 2:28 mark. At 2:07 Chris Harraway scored on a jumper in the key to increase Lindbergh’s lead to 49-57. On Tyee’s next possession, Jacob Alerte hit a three-pointer from the top of the key to make it a five-point game with only 1:44 left - and their fans were loving it!

Lindbergh obviously did not think about running time off the clock, as Tyrell Shavers tossed up a shot with 29 seconds left on the shot clock, and 1:37 in the game, making the score 52 to 59. The scoring frenzy was not over yet.

Not to be outdone, Tyee’s Anthony Summers pops a three-pointer in from the top of the key to cut the score to – again - only four, 55 to 59 now with 1:19 remaining. There was still time to complete their comeback.

With 1:19 to go in the game, Tyee called a timeout to talk things over. “We wanted to keep pushing the ball,” said coach Campanelli. “We felt like we were getting good looks in transition. Defensively, we wanted to pick them up at about half court and trap their wings to see if we could force some turnovers. We talked about the situation we were in. It's a four-point game; if we score and it gets inside of 35-40 seconds then we got to start watching the clock, going for steals but then consider putting them on the line. We got the turnovers we wanted; we just didn't get the baskets we wanted at the other end.”

After the timeout, Lindbergh’s Chris Harraway got the ball down low and put it in with 1:04 to go, making it 55-61. Tyee would again cut the lead to four when Ezekiel Reynolds drove baseline and scored on a reverse lay-in with 47 seconds left.

With full court pressure from Tyee, Lindbergh's Cameron Callen dribbled the ball up court, passing to Nate Cunningham in front of their bench, but it went out of bounds - to the pleasure of Tyee fans and the dismay of Lindbergh’s. Tyee would not score on their next possession nor the rest of the game. Lindbergh's Tyrell Shavers scored the last points of the game on an off-balance shot near the basket with 20 seconds remaining. Final score - Lindbergh 63, Tyee 57.

Game-high scoring honors went to Anthony Summers of Tyee with 21 points, teammates Jacob Alerte had 14 and Ezekiel Reynolds 12. Lindbergh’s Chris Harraway scored a team-high 17 points. He was the “big guy” at 6’6” that Tyee wanted to stop but couldn’t.

Tyee’s next game will be at Evergreen on Wednesday, January 30th at 7 pm.