The Seattle Christian boys basketball team played from behind much of the game against Auburn Adventist, but got good things going just in time to beat the Falcons, 45-41, in the Warriors’ opening game of their two-day Christmas Tournament inside their nice double gymnasium Dec. 29.

“It was a good game,” said head coach Shaun DeYager, in his first year. “The guys did a good job coming back.”

SCS trailed by a 36-34 score with 3:15 left in the fourth quarter of this game. Auburn Adventist’s top player, 6-foot-6 Stevie Downs, got the ball off a time out -- drove to the rim from the top of the key and leaped in the paint. He was going to lay the ball up into the cylinder. But Downs never got there.

SCS’ 6-4 Cameron Doyle was there, poised, like a rock in front of the basket, waiting. He was about to get hit hard by Downs.

But it was a sacrifice well taken for Doyle. Charge! Offensive foul on Downs.

“Warriors ball,” said game announcer Jeff Evenson, jubilantly.

You took it for your team, Cameron? A tough but nice way to defend.

“Yeah,” said Doyle.

What were you thinking with the 6-7 Downs’ muscle and sinewy flesh flying at you?

“I better set my feet right or I am going to get plowed,” said Doyle.

Still, Downs hit you pretty good on that play?

“I felt it for sure,” said Doyle.

But you took it for the team?

“I took it for the team,” smiled Doyle. “I was kneed right in the stomach.”

What happened next?

“Coach called a timeout and said he knew we could do this, there was still a lot of time left,” said the SCS senior, Doyle, who finished with 12 points, not a team-high but his crunch-time performance was of the highest order.

“I looked at each one of them and knew they didn’t back down,” said DeYager. “They all looked at me like, ‘Yeah, coach, we can get this.’”

At first, it didn’t look like SCS was heading in the right direction, off DeYager’s timeout. Auburn Adventist got a turnover and then was fouled and made two free throws from the line to make it 38-34 with 2:50 to go in the fourth.

With another try to make something happen on its possession, trailing by four, in time now critical for the game. SCS ran a play for Doyle and he was fouled on a drive. But then he missed both free throws. Fear not, swooping in on the same play was fellow senior Al Lang, rebounding the ball with his 6-0 frame. The guard got the ball and laid it up, making those Auburn Adventist players pay dearly for not boxing him out. Maybe Lang was just too quick. No matter the case, it was now 38-36, Auburn Adventist, with 2:20 left.

After good ‘D’ by the Warriors meant an Auburn Adventist turnover next, it was SCS’ guard, the 5-9 Michael Watts, bringing the basketball across halfcourt. And he quickly found the speedy Lang on the wing, who zipped baseline to the basket to make it 38-38.

Auburn Adventist was fouled and made 1-for-2 free throws their next possession down court for a 39-38 lead.

For SCS’ next trip down court, 6-1 junior Michael Cardenas found Michael Watts under the rim, but traveling was the call by the referees.

Auburn Adventist stretched the lead to 41-38 next on an inside basket with 1:25 to go in the fourth quarter.

Time was running out on the Warriors, or so it seemed.

About time to start getting worried in this one for the home fans?

“Yeah, I was a little worried,” said Doyle. “It came down to the last second.”

Trailing by three, the Warriors’ Patrick Donovan located Doyle under the rim in the paint, who, in one quick motion, laid it in to make it 41-40 with 50 seconds to go in the game.

Then Doyle got the rebound on the defensive end.

After another Warriors timeout by DeYager, Doyle got it underneath, assist to Lang, to make it 42-41, Warriors, with 37 seconds to go.

With 20 seconds left, Downs was going in for another swooping shot to take the lead, 43-42, for his team, but the Auburn Adventist star missed, hitting the ball just a little too hard off the glass, catching rim, and kicking out.

The ball kicked awkwardly sideways toward the baseline and a couple Warriors and Falcons players went after it, last going in Cardenas’ hands. He was fouled on the scramble.

Cardenas, at the free throw line, then made the first but missed the second, so it was 43-41 Warriors with 15 seconds left in the game.

Auburn Adventist was still in it, going down for what looked like a scoring opportunity before Doyle stepped in doing what he did all game -- in addition to scoring -- stealing the ball.

Doyle was fouled and iced it with two free throws for the final score.

Doyle was the biggest key in this game, even though he sat out the first quarter.

“It is a team rule that if we miss a practice we sit out the first quarter,” said Doyle, who was on the Kitsap Peninsula in Kingston this past Christmas week. “I was with my dad...snowed in.”

Doyle not looking rusty at all for sure, huh, coach?

“Yeah, eight rebounds, seven steals, shooting 60 percent from the line,” said DeYager, glancing at the stat sheet after the game. “Not bad.”

What was bad was the Warriors’ overall shooting. Some players like their sharpshooters from long range were missing horribly on this night. One was 3-for-10 from three-point range and 3-for-13 overall. Another was 6-for-18 on 1-for-7 from three-land. Add in a few more points in those ways and this game may not have been close.

Looking at the bright side, besides Doyle’s play in the three quarters he was in there, for 12 points, only outdone by Lang with 18, was the defense on Downs, who was averaging over 15 points per game this season, according to DeYager.

“We played them during the summer and he scored something like 20 points against us,” he said. “We wanted to take him out of the game and make someone else beat us. Michael Watts did a great job for us marking him tonight. He (Downs) scored a lot less points than he usually does.”

Even with that strategy frustrating Downs, who finished with only nine points, way off his 17.0 average, it was still a close game and the Warriors needed everyone to make up a late-game difference. Everyone did, Doyle said.

“They definitely did,” said Doyle. “Staying in it down the stretch and doing what we needed to do at the end.”

Watts, being 5-9, to note, was on the 6-7 Downs, and, somehow, someway, kept in the face of that guy all game long defending beautifully, with good help from Doyle and others in this definite team win for SCS.

The Warriors are having a tough season so far, all preseason games, so the league games come up quickly starting in February when things begin to get important for the postseason district and, hopefully, state tournament. The Warriors are 3-5 to start, 3-6, after losing to Cedar Park Christian, 59-48, in the championship of this tournament Tuesday, Dec. 30. But that loss should not be a surprise since SCS less than 24 hours earlier expended much energy against Auburn Adventist. And this win against Auburn Adventist can offer confidence to a young team that lost a lot of players off a good team last season that also lost it’s great coach, Roger DeBoer, who took the Warriors to a state championship win in 2000 and a few other high state finishes.

But if you play like you did in this game, like you did down the stretch, and, also battling from an 18-12 first quarter deficit to a 25-24 score by halftime, can this game mean good things?

“Yeah,” said Doyle. “If we could execute like that all the time.”

In this one they did execute plays at just the right time. For an inexperienced team, it was a good ending.

“This group is a young team,” said DeYager. “Most were on junior varsity last year. This game gives them confidence. They know they can pull out a close game together as a team.”