Kennedy Catholic won the championship on Friday for the third season in a row, holding second-place Hazen to two points over more than a quarter-long stretch as the Lancers cruised to a 57-34 Senior Night victory.
BURIEN — To win the Seamount League title, the Kennedy Lancers got defensive.
Kennedy Catholic won the championship on Friday for the third season in a row, holding second-place Hazen to two points over more than a quarter-long stretch as the Lancers cruised to a 57-34 Senior Night victory.
“The goal every year is to win a championship,” Kennedy coach Don Hoffman said. “We went through a lot of growing pains this year. This really was a totally new group.”
The game was close for the first six minutes.
Most Read Sports Stories
When Xavier Dumas made a three-pointer for the Highlanders (9-4 league, 13-6 overall) with 2:14 to go in the first quarter, Kennedy led it just 9-7. The Lancers (11-2, 13-6) scored the final seven points of the quarter, though, to take a 16-7 lead into the second.
Neither team managed much offense over the first six minutes of the second quarter, but leading just 20-14 with 2:13 to go in the half, Kennedy turned up the defense even more.
Hazen scored only one basket until Tarren Sumler scored for the Highlanders with 1:37 left in the third quarter. The defensive effort turned into a 20-2 run over that stretch for Kennedy, which led it 40-16 before the Sumler two.
“We knew we needed this to win the championship,” junior Emilio Mancol said.
In addition, the Lancers were all over Hazen leading scorer Connor O’Hearn, who didn’t score a single point in the game until the 4:52 mark of the fourth quarter. He finished with just seven points.
“We knew he’s their scorer,” Hoffman said. “We put our best defenders on him. And if they screened for him, we switched immediately.”
Kennedy will go down in history as the last boys basketball champion in the Seamount, which is disbanding after this year. Kennedy and Hazen will join the reforming North Puget Sound League in the fall.
The Lancers also avenged an earlier loss to the Highlanders, and in clinching the title also earned the top seed for the league to the West Central District tournament that begins Feb. 10.
“The goal is to get that home game, hopefully win it and then you’re on the right side of the bracket,” said Hoffman, whose team will host the Greater St. Helen’s League No. 3 team in the first round of districts. Meanwhile, Hazen will have to travel to play the Narrows 3A champion in the first round, likely Lincoln.
Mancol came up big on the offensive end of the floor for Kennedy, as well. He scored 15 of his game-high 23 points in the first half to lead the Lancers as they built a 26-14 advantage by halftime. Julian Christian had 10 points to pace Hazen.