On Fri. Dec. 5, the Issaquah boys basketball team played its first away game of the season against Lake Washington. Issaquah went into Friday’s game with a 1-1 record, very early in the season, having played just two games prior to their matchup with the Kangs, winning against Foster but losing against Liberty. Lake Washington started their season off with two strong wins, making them 2-0; gaining this record by beating both North Creek and Bainbridge. With both Issaquah and Lake Washington having good starts to their season, it was unpredictable who would leave the court with the win.
In a tough fought battle, the Eagles took an unfortunate loss with the game ending 64-57. Issaquah’s starting lineup was senior player number zero Maccoy Pond, player one senior Rowan Miller, player four senior Alex Kirkpatrick, player 23 sophomore Grady Pond, and player 32 junior Zach O’Brien. Pond returned to Issaquah basketball after spending the past few months playing for Overtime Elite, an Atlanta-based basketball league.
Pond started the game putting the Eagles in a good position by winning the tip off. The game was a back-and-forth between the two offenses where Issaquah took an early 9-7 lead in the last four minutes of the first quarter. Lake Washington responded with a quick and dominant performance to finish out the quarter, going on a 15-2 run, leaving the quarter with the Kangs leading 22-9.
To start the second quarter, Kirkpatrick opened the scoring for the Eagles with a nice layup making the score 25-11, Lake Washington still possessing a controlling 14 point lead. Issaquah’s coaching staff then decided to take a 30 second timeout with the score increasing after Lake Washington scored another 3-pointer making the game 28-11. To resume the play post timeout, Pond scored a 3-pointer in hopes to decrease the 31-14 lead Lake Washington held around the five minute mark. The Eagles did not let this stop them from taking on the strong Lake Washington defense where Kirkpatrick, M. Pond and G. Pond contributed by both scoring crucial 3-pointers to round out the quarter. The Eagles successfully closed the gap in points, however still falling behind by a small 6 points. The score heading into the half being 37-31.
Lake Washington took advantage of the third quarter consistently scoring points on every single one of their offensive drives. With six minutes left on the clock in the third quarter Issaquah’s coaching staff had a disagreement with the refs. Issaquah’s head coach Warren Bailey, had an emotional response to a call made and screamed “That’s bullshit!” in a gym that had gone completely silent. Lake Washington gained two uncontested free throws in response making the score 47-35. The third quarter ended with Lake Washington continuing to possess their strong lead 51-40. Opening the final quarter, Issaquah freshman player 20 Murray Brightbill stepped on the court and made a crucial impact on defense. The end of the game continued to be the same hard fought battle it had always been, with both teams increasing their aggression and therefore fouling more. The game ended with Issaquah losing 64-57.
It is still early in the season, with the eagles only having played three games to date. This gives the team time to build their chemistry, continue to train hard and improve their weaknesses. Rowan Miller, a senior varsity starter for the boys basketball team states “Some challenges have been injuries and absences for sure. Like two of our starters are either out or playing through tough injuries” but that they “Scheduled very tough opponents for us to play early on and we are going to come into our own as a team very soon” Despite the loss, Issaquah demonstrated great potential with their scoring ability and strong personalities on the court. Come and support the boys in their next game on Dec. 9 at home against Bothell!
