Edmonds men survive Lane, advance to Elite 8

PASCO -- After a sluggish start, Edmonds men's basketball turned it on late and overcame, topping Lane 72-66.

It took both teams a while to settle in early. Edmonds built a 13-7 advantage, but Lane responded with an 11-0 run, prompting a timeout by Coach Gray. Coming out of the timeout, Shiloh Zevenbergen nailed a three ball to stop the momentum. Lane took a 32-26 lead into the locker rooms.

The back-and-forth continued in the second half, with the Tritons finally grabbing the lead (51-50) on another Zevenbergen trey with eight minutes on the clock. Lane's Jevon Blackmore presented a problem all night with his drives to the paint. He finished with 17 points. There were 9 lead changes in the contest. With just over six minutes left Edmonds made it to the bonus, but they were unable to capitalize at the free throw line.

Josiah Pierre, who scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half, delivered a huge corner three-pointer to push Edmonds ahead 62-56. After consecutive defensive stops, Jack Sims and Chris Lee followed with buckets, but Lane hit some big threes of their own, and stormed back to cut the deficit to 66-63. The following possession, Sims came up with a key swipe under the hoop that resulted in a Chris Lee jumper that extended the edge to 68-63. Two Trevon Hamilton free throws put the game out of reach at 70-63. 

Chris Lee was the game's top scorer with 22 points -- 15 of those came in the second stanza. Jack Sims scored 6, came down with 8 rebounds, and dished out 3 assists to go with 3 steals.

Next up is a matchup with Green River (24-6, 11-3) in the Elite 8 on Thursday at 4 p.m. The Gators routed Spokane on Wednesday, 93-57. The Tritons (22-8, 11-3) moved up to a No. 5 ranking in the final NWAC Coaches Poll. Green River is just one spot ahead of them as the No. 4-ranked squad. Thursday's tilt is sure to be a thriller -- Edmonds is riding a 10-game winning streak and Green River has notched seven in a row. The men's basketball program has reached the Elite 8 for the second consecutive season.

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Dan Acosta shot the game for the NWAC. You can see his gallery here.

Chris Lee was interviewed post-game: https://x.com/NWACSports/status/1765593948763115840?s=20