Turnovers turned into deadly darts of destruction in a close 39-37 Evergreen Lutheran Class 2B SeaTac League South division boys basketball loss to visiting Crosspoint Academy (Bremerton) on Saturday, January 9, in Des Moines.

Crosspoint took the top of the South rankings at 3-1 and improved to 5-4 overall. Despite the hard work, Evergreen Lutheran dropped to fourth at 1-2 and 2-8 overall.

"Our inexperience caused us to turn the ball over too much," was Eagle head coach Dave Habeck's concise observation.

Trailing 39-33 with just more than four minutes left in the fourth quarter EL missed numerous opportunities to close in further despite tough defense on their part.

Wyatt Weimer finally cashed in for Evergreen Lutheran by stealing the ball in the Warrior back court and driving home a lay in to ignite the last-ditch rally with 1:35 left. Crosspoint tried to run off clock time, but Weimer again pilfered the ball in Warrior territory and streaked to another lay in as 31.7 seconds showed on the scoreboard clock.

Evergreen Lutheran kept giving fouls until CPA went to the foul line and missed the first of a one-and-one situation 17 seconds later. The Warriors had even more fouls to give and used one with 4.1 seconds remaining. Inbounding behind their own offensive basket, the Eagles passed the ball inside where it was tipped and eventually sent outside for a desperation three-point shot that failed to connect.

Crosspoint formed a good triangle offense off the high post to set up good shot openings while Evergreen Lutheran attacked a passive defense as the teams fought to a 14-14 first quarter stand off.

Eagle leads of 16-15 and 18-17 withered away in the face of a 9-0 Warrior dash to a halftime margin of 26-18. Cross Point's final points of the quarter came on Jordan Barton's unplanned three-point bank shot while he was being fouled. Barton tacked on the foul shot to complete the four point play. In addition to difficult ball possession, Evergreen Lutheran outside shooting and consistent rebounding were elusive.

Improved defense reduced the Eagle disadvantage to five points twice in the third quarter, but good outside shooting was still nowhere to be found. Chris Gallardo's three-ball brought the Eagles within 35-29 to end the quarter.

Cross Point Academy built an eight point margin before Weimer's rebound basket and a Steve Lawrence layin off an Eagle steal drew the Eagles close at 37-33. Jared Wright's inside field goal then set the stage for the dramatic concluding sequences.

Rolan Wedde and Steve Lawrence each scored eight points for the Eagles. In addition, Wedde grabbed 10 rebounds. Weimer and Gallardo added seven points apiece and Weimer also recovered 10 boards.

Austin Hewitt scored a game high 11 points for Crosspoint to go along with teammate Chase Estes' 10 tallies.