by Ed Shepherd
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

The game was with no real anything at stake, as, both teams, Shorewood Christian and Neah Bay, already knew they were going to a regional game following this game, for a chance at a state berth, but, that lack of urgency incentive couldn't be known from the intensity of the game, in the latter stages of the first quarter, anyway, and, beyond that, some, too, but not enough good things early by the Lions translated into a loss, 72-59, in a 1B tri-district 1/2/3 boys basketball semifinal at Mount Vernon Christian Thursday.

There is one more seeding game Friday before a regional, loser-out, game affair, at a site and time to be determined for the Lions next weekend, Saturday. For it's seeding game, the Lions played Mount Rainier Lutheran at Evergreen Lutheran High School at 6:30 pm Friday, before, the regional game, next, that is loser-out, and, the winner of it goes to the state tournament in the Spokane Arena, starting March 5.

Of the game, versus the Red Devils, the Lions coach, Alfonso Gonzales said, "We won the 2nd half of the game, but, the first half, we didn't do so good."
The Lions just didn't start well, getting behind, 24-15, after the first quarter, and, 34-19, after the second, to the Red Devils,who are a good team, and, though not a start of goodness by the Lions, that would change. And, this Red Devils team is good, always in the state tournament, and, were third in the state last year, having beaten the Lions at state last year, eliminating them, actually. So, intensity should have been there for the Lions.

But, the Lions, out of the gate, in the first quarter, were like a racehorse that hears the bell ring, for the start of a race, and, the gate opens fine, on time, for all the horses, but, the one horse stalls just enough to make it impossible to ever get fully back those strides lost no matter how hard it tries.

Got to change how the games start for the Lions. Because this very talented and well-rounded, well coached team, won't get anywhere for its big regional game next week, if they don't improve the start, this game and more.
"Yeah, the whole season we've done that," said Gonzales, who referred to a slow start against Northwest Yeshiva, who the Lions did go on to beat 50-45 in its opening tri-district 1/2/3 game. "Slow starts."

And, here's how the Lions start began against the Red Devils.

The Lions' 6-3, forward, sophomore, Jovi Fevaleaki, scored the game's first two points, so, the Lions led, 2-0. Then, the Red Devils scored, making it, 2-2. The foe scored, next, so, 4-2, then, 6-2, then, Fevaleaki, 6-4, then, the foe, 8-4, they led. Then, the Lions' found themselves way behind early, off a turnover, and, Red Devils' three-pointer, making it, 11-4, with 5:00 left in the first quarter.
Then, a layup miss by the Lions' savvy, controlling, point guard, Stan Domingo, hurt. That miss of an easy shot hurt even more when the Red Devils scored another, upping it's lead to 15-4. Then, with 3:00 left, still, in the first quarter, the Red Devils scored another to increase its gap to 17-4.

"They are a good team," said Fevaleaki. "Can't get down by that much."
And, the huge, deficit, early, for the Lions, was crushing way to begin, and, even, more stampeding on them, with the fact known that the Lions would finish strong the rest of the first quarter, getting back to within five points by the end of that first frame of play.

So, down 17-4, it was an ugly picture, for the Lions, thus far, but, then, they drew life, with a scored three-pointer by Matt Munson, making it a 17-7 Red Devils' lead. Then, the Red Devils hit their own three, so, 20-7, but, the fight was there, now, for the Lions who got a three, again, this time from Lucas Sollesvik, cutting the foe's lead to 20-10, with 1:45 left in the first quarter. Not done yet, the Lions' Stan Domingo made a shot, slashing into the lane for two, 20-12. Then, Domingo, again, got a steal and score, so, 20-15, and, fouled, so bonus shot, to try and cut the Red Devils gaping lead just a few minutes earlier to four points.But, Domingo missed bonus shot at the line. The Red Devils scored the next four points to end the first quarter ahead, 24-15, over the Lions.

But, the second quarter was not good for the Lions at any point, no rallies at all, as,they trailed, 34-19, after it, going into halftime.
And, what did the Lions' coach, Alfonso Gonzales, say after the second quarter's completion and his team was sitting with him in the locker room at the half.

"Got to make our buckets, got to make our layups, got to rebound," said JJ Young, who missed two layups in the first half before making his third try, which meant, the third try was the charm, which is never a good thing when one is talking about making easy layups. But, that was with 2:30 left in the third quarter and the Lions trailed 45-28 before Young's first layup score for his team.
And, Young is a strong player, good for 10 points a game on average, though a sophomore, young, like the whole team, really, almost all underclassmen, and, that was atypical of Young's play for the Lions this season, missing those layups early.
"Just the nerves," said Domingo, the team's floor leader. "Confidence is there with him."

Young was honest speaking of his layup misses sequentially adding up, costing his team much needed easy points in any game's tone-setting time--the beginning.
"I was focused on the player behind me," said Young of why he was missing layups early. "I wasn't focused on the basket. I tried to focus more on the basket in the second half."

And, Young did, redeem himself for this small, private, Christian school, based in White Center, Young scored nine points for the game, all in the second half. So, good job there by him to not give up.
And, moving to the third quarter, the Lions outscored the Red Devils in that 8-minute period, 19-11, to make up for its fairly woeful first half. So, good there, too, for the Lions. In the third, Matt Munson had made it, 48-38, with a three-pointer, with 3:30 left in the frame, and, then, with 30 seconds left in the third, Jovi Fevaleaki hit a three, too, cutting game to 11-point difference, 54-43, Red Devils.

So, the Lions were with a single-digit lead to conquer then, but, just didn't sustain that momentum into the fourth quarter, creeping back into old patterns, of not just this game but the whole season for this Lions team, who were 11-9 coming into this game, going against a Red Devils team that was 15-3.
And, Young explained what Gonzalez spoke to his team about after the game was over, a convicting air to Young's voice, to note, with what the Lions 'got' to do, he said of earlier, and, now.

"Coach told us, 'We can't start slow anymore,'" said Young. "'Got to start fast,'" said Young of Gonzalez plea-sounding words after this loss to the Red Devils.
Gonzalez spoke to, doing a summation of the game.
"Neah Bay is a good team, they were third at state last year and won the state championship in 2012 or '13," said Gonzalez. "They are at state most years."
So, props to the Lions for flashes of brilliance, but, those flashes need to become lighting in a bottle, so to speak, with a drive to burst out from the start of a game, got to assemble success beginning to end, or, at this level, districts, and, certainly state, things will crumble.

"We couldn't put it together in the first half," said Gonzales.

For the scoring summary of the game, team-wise, the Lions shot 19-for-50 (38 percent) from the field while the Red Devils shot 25-for-49 (51 percent). The three-point shooting was almost even, with, in fact, the Lions making 4-for-13, and, the Red Devils, 3-for-14. Just the little differences added up, like making more of, about, the same number of shots taken in the game, from the field. And, for free throws, little difference there, too, with the Lions shooting 9-for-16 (56 percent) from the stripe and the Red Devils, 13-for-16 (81 percent).
The Lions were led by Fevaleaki with 22 points, Stan Domingo, with 20 points, and, JJ Young, with nine.