By Ed Shepherd
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

Seattle Christian Schools' Warriors boys basketball team ran by the visiting Tyee Totems, who tried to play tough to start but were overpowered more and more as the game wore on -- getting handed a 58-34 loss Monday.

The SCS Warriors moved to 2-2 on the season, all non-league games, while the Totems went to 1-4.
The Warriors show promise this season, for many reasons, including the fact they only lost a tough, 59-55, score to Cedar Park Christian (3-1), to start its Cascade season, a very tough league, traditionally, with state-power, Kings, in it. And, anyway, CPC is not playing in 1A, like the Warriors do. Cedar Park Christian plays in 2A, with much larger enrollment.

"Much larger" because of what Warriors head coach Shawn De Yager said.
"We play in 1A, but should be 2B because of our enrollment," said De Yager. "We opt up to 1A, which is good for all sports at our school."

Making a "promising" season case even more apparent, the Warriors played Kentlake earlier this preseason, too, Dec. 6, and their 55-42 loss to the Falcons, on paper, anyway, looks more like a blow out than anything else. However, the Falcons are a 4A school, a full three classifcations higher than the Warriors, and this is what De Yager had to say about that game:

"It was a four to six-point game most of the way," said De Yager. "We left that game thinking we could have won. Maybe that's a good sign of competitors."

The Warriors found themselves down, 19-9, after the first quarter of that game against the Falcons before outscoring the 4A school, 16-14, in the second quarter and pretty much playing even in the third quarter, 11-11, in points for each school. That was before the Falcons went on an 11-6 fourth-quarter run.
So clean up the first quarter intensity, it seems, and build on the confidence from manning up against higher classification teams and this season, for the Warriors, could be a state season before things are through. Three years ago, under De Yager, the Warriors made it to state before losing after one game, and also after having, before that state run, taken first place in the Nisqually League.
"I think the ceiling for this group is a lot higher than three years ago," said De Yager. "It's going to take some effort, but we can achieve a lot in a little bit of time. They work their tails off. Battle in practice. Care about each other. They want to see each other succeed."

So, in the game against Tyee, the Warriors received good balanced scoring in the first quarter as they went to a 13-7 lead and the Totems got six of their seven points from freshman Clark Huakau staying within a couple three-pointers of tying the game after one quarter. But, in the second quarter, the Warriors really brought their game to "on" after watching the Totems' Drew Williams' cut the lead to 13-9 -- going on a 14-7 run the rest of the quarter. The Warriors' Tyler Fox, a sophomore, hit the switch then, making it 15-11, and junior Taggart Anderson made a shot next, extending the SCS lead to 17-11. And sophomore Evan Toy layed up a shot, a little later in the quarter, and it was 25-11. The Totems, however, still did not give up, making the score more respectable as junior Tre Terry, hit a three-pointer to make it 25-14 before Warriors senior forward Jeffrey Sutherland made a shot in the paint for a 27-16 lead going into halftime.

But the Totems, struggling this season already, including 0-1 in the Seamount League, impressed their first-year coach, Brandon Horstman, in this game and that's always good to have one's coach saying good things about their team.

"It was, actually, an improvement for us, as far as effort throughout the game," said Horstman. "Definitely a step in the right direction. We've been struggling to have games with a full amount of effort. Even though we were out-executed, I never felt the guys gave up."

In the third quarter, the Warriors really found their groove, getting their game dancing via an opening three-pointer from Anderson -- the team's leading scorer in this game with 20 points, as well as season average too at 17.2 points per game.

So that bomb by Anderson made it 30-16, and Fox followed up his good shooting of the first half, five points to lead all scorers through it, swished in a three-pointer. And just like that the 11-point deficit for the Totems switched to 17, 33-16. Still fighting, though, the Totems' Terry hit a shot, driving the lane, cutting the Warriors' lead to 33-18. But the Warriors just kept a-coming and a-scoring, as Anderson blasted home another from behind the three-point arc, making it a 36-18 score. And Sutherland got more in the act, scoring the next two baskets for the Warriors midway through the eight-minute third quarter, upping the home team's lead to 40-18.

The not-quit positive for the Totems showed itself twice more, at least, in this game, with Julian Ennest hitting a three-point shot, with 30 seconds left in the third quarter, making it 44-21, and then Deion Williams rebounded a ball and scored, making it 44-23 at the end of the third.

"I'm happy with the consistent effort, how we responded," said Horstman. "In the past, we would stop competing."

And to the fourth quarter, and in it, the Warriors kept scoring in a variety of ways from a variety of players. Senior Bryan Botka scored, his first points, making it 56-29 with a couple minutes left in the fourth. For the Totems, like the third quarter, second, and first, they made the final points of the quarter, with a Nebiu Kinfu three-point shot that made it 58-34.

"Tyee came out hard," said SCS coach De Yager. "They worked hard the whole game."

So the remainder of this season looks like one of good expectations that could, perhaps, turn out great. Not sure if they could be as great as the 2000 Warriors team under coach Roger De Boer that beat Toutle Lake to win the 1A state title, or 2001 that played in the title game and lost to Kings in overtime. But this version of SCS b-ball looks like it's got the makings of something high.
Players think the top is higher than last year, too.

Captains are all juniors this season, guard Peyton Gunhus, point guard Ryan Gifford, and forward Anderson.

"I feel our chemistry is going to grow every game this season," said Anderson.
"We can make it farther this year, due to talent and speed on the court," said Gunhus. "All nine guys can come in and contribute."

"We call it '9 as 1,' that's our motto," said Gifford, who smoothly ran the offense in this game, making nice entry passes to post players and shooting guards.
Gifford is ready to go himself, handling the pressure of point guard. Toy helps bear off some of that load at that position, too.

"I have a year under my belt, so I'm calmer, not everything is a rush," said Gifford.
Speaking of post play and shooters just aforementioned, the Warriors did lose Cody Miller, a 25 points-per-game scorer, but it's picked up players in that absence that should have a positive effect on a season that ended in a couple losses at districts last year.

"Our scoring options are a lot deeper than last year, not just one or two guys," said Gifford. "We can use everybody, can trust teammates."

"Yeah," said Taggart. "We have others to score, like Tyler Fox can hit three's and Jeffrey Sutherland is a great post player. Brian Botka is a first-year player, but is really reliable on making layups and has long arms to get rebounds."

Fox comes from a father Chris and mother Rhonda (Daggett, '86), who are SCS graduates, and, Chris Fox, 1985 grad, helped the SCS Warriors' soccer team, as captain, get to state under that squad's coach Dave Peterson. And Fox also played on the Warriors' basketball team that made state under Brian Peterson. That team played No. 2 ranked Cashmere in its opening state playoff, with a 17-9 record, going up against a Cashmere team that was like 31-2. And the Warriors, with players like Kevin Kennedy, Mike Fossler, Brian Davis and Steve Smith were behind by one-point, 32-31, at halftime, before succumbing in the second half to Cashmere and its Washington State-bound, 6-10, center, Brian Payne. And Rhonda Daggett, now, "Fox," was athletic in cheer at SCS. So, a little history there, and that's to say good bloodline there for Tyler Fox on this year's Warriors team.

And so, to the SCS coach, De Yager, what of his part in all this potential ring of success this season?
"Before every game, he reads us off a verse for leadership, how to focus as leaders," said Gunhus. "Because all of us are leaders."

"He knows the game very well," said Anderson.
And the SCS faith of this being a private Christian school plays into the equation, too, as one can imagine.
"We just kind of want Christ to be a reflection of all our actions on the court," said Gunhus. "Hand the ball to the ref."

"We always want to have good sportsmanship," said Taggart, as, Gifford, and the others, pointed and mentioned the awards on the walls in the SCS gym. The past three years champs winning the sportsmanship award in the Nisqually League.

That's a lot of hope all said in here for the Warriors having a season that's with a promising ring to it.

The Warriors next home game is Friday, Dec. 19, against Overlake, before Foster comes to the Warriors gym on Dec. 23, with the first league season game not happening until Jan. 9. And, there aren't that many of them type games once the season does get underway.

"We have only eight league games this season, so, we built our schedule with 4A, and, 3A teams. Kent Lake, and, we play Interlake later on this season too. We really wanted to challenge these guys."
So, time will tell just how that kind of work all pays off.

And, for the Totems, they are at Renton on Dec. 17 and at Kennedy Catholic on Dec. 19.
Hopefully, these two teams keep on improving, because real winning happens that way, and, not just in sports, but, in life.