It was a thriller in Seaview Gymnasium on Saturday night. The Edmonds College Tritons Men’s Basketball Team handed the undefeated Skagit Valley College Cardinals their first loss in overtime, 107-103.
The Tritons established an early lead, but Skagit answered back claiming a 5-point lead at the end of the first half. Head Coach Kyle Gray said, “Part of the game plan going in was to utilize our depth. We are a deep team with 16 guys that can contribute on any given night. This allowed us to keep the pressure up all night and, as we kept telling our guys, it’s a 40-minute game plan or in this case 45-minute game plan.”
Gray never counted out his team, “I think with our style of play and the athletes that we have we never feel we are out of it and have had a good amount of times this year where we have made leads disappear quickly.”
Sophomore Chris Lee made some critical shots that turned the tide in the second half. Lee praised his head coach. “Coach Gray told us at the half to just keep trusting each other and our game plan. We knew we had to apply pressure to win this game.”
Lee said he also recognized why Skagit Valley was undefeated, “They are a really solid and well-coached team so we knew we had to match that the whole way.” In the middle of the second half, the Tritons were down by a 12-point deficit but managed to swing back late in the game.
With two minutes left to go in the game, Lee hit a clutch three-pointer from the corner to cut Skagit’s lead to 4 points. “After that shot, I felt a lot of weight lifted off my shoulders,” Lee said, “I was struggling to find a rhythm the whole game”
Lee gave props to his teammates for finding him to get the shot in. “Shout-out to the team, for being able to get me an open look, especially from three”
With 25 seconds left and time running down, Lee made another improbable three-point shot, which narrowed Skagit’s lead to one point, making it 93-94. Lee described, “I remember knowing I was going to have to make a play for my team and my teammates trusted me in that moment to do that. Being down four, it was a risk taking that 3 instead of trying to get something easier at the hoop.” he recollected “After seeing it go in, my only thought was getting the ball back to have a chance at winning the game.”
Of all the shots Lee has made, he ranked that moment to be an all-time highlight, “I’ve made some really tough shots in my career, I would say that one is up there.”
Freshman Jaden Messer was fouled in the bonus and put up the go-ahead free throws giving the Tritons a 95-94 lead with 15 seconds left.
With only 4.7 seconds left, Skagit missed a critical free throw which sent the game into overtime 95-95. The energy of the fans was apparent at that moment, and cheers erupted when that free throw was missed.
Freshman and former Kamiak High School grad Naser Motley opened overtime with free throw points. Motley put up 18 points total and was an integral part of Edmonds’ victory.
Lee again hit another three, which gave the Tritons the go-ahead, “In OT our mindset was the same as it was throughout the whole game. Coach Gray kept saying to our bench to just keep chipping away and it got us to really focus in on our effort to stay in the game.”
The Tritons finished strong for a 107-103 victory over Skagit Valley. Gray commended the team, “I’m incredibly proud of them mainly because it was a complete team effort. We saw Nas (Motley), Chris (Lee), and Josiah (Pierre) all step up in big spots but also the defense of Trevon (Hamilton) and Caleb (Lee) was huge down the stretch along with very timely free throws from Jaden (Messer).”
