Lions boys basketball nets first loss of season vs. Federal Way

It had to happen at some point, but the way it happened was hard to swallow for the Auburn Mountainview Lions boys basketball team, which lost their first game of the season to Federal Way, 57-56, at home on Jan. 28.

Auburn Mountainview was in control for the entire game, and in the fourth quarter with less than five minutes remaining, held a 55-43 lead over the Eagles. But credit goes to Federal Way, who closed the game out on a 14-1 run, and a Saxon Niles lay-in handed the Lions their first loss of the season.

“It’s a lesson learned. We have been blessed enough to win some games despite some bad endings, possessions and quarters. Most teams don’t get to learn lessons by winning, but I think it was our turn to learn a lesson the hard way,” Head Coach Kendall White said.

Calling it a collapse is a bit on the nose, but what happened to the Lions is one of the more dreaded occurrences that a basketball coach can see unfold. The only person who scored was Lucas McClendon, who wasn’t even in the game — he subbed for Sudan Luok, who was injured and couldn’t take his free throws.

“We got cozy and turned the ball over in the fourth quarter. We took some terrible, terrible shots and we didn’t rebound the ball in the fourth. We deserved to learn that way,” White said.

Sebastian Arius went cold, McClendon went cold, and Kolven Posey, who had 24 points in the first three quarters, couldn’t find the bottom of the basket. Between all three of those players, none got to the free throw line in the fourth quarter.

From the first quarter, the Lions knew this was going to be a physical battle. In the first quarter, they made just four shots from the floor. Posey had eight points and Arius made one three, but the Eagles’ defense brought it from the tip.

“I told them I got PTSD because it reminds me every time we got to playoffs and play a Tacoma team, we just struggle to find a way to get buckets. It was a little too much. We didn’t fight through the contact… We lived and died by the three-pointer, we lived in the middle two quarters but died in the first and died in the fourth,” said White.

Posey finished with 15 first-half points and was really being a thorn in the side of Marcel Jones, the Eagles’ point guard. Posey continues to impress in his junior year.

“He was on ‘go.’ He wasn’t afraid, nervous to miss or fail. He didn’t have a perfect game, but I told him he did everything he could,” White said.

In the second half, the Lions came out with a 30-28 lead. Posey went on to score 11 in the third quarter and the Lions looked to cruise to their 17th win of the season.

Federal Way, however, found their footing, and Saxon Niles, who scored six in the first and four in the middle two quarters, put up 13 points in the fourth quarter — and his last bucket was the game winner.

After Niles scored, the Lions had 3.8 seconds left to score, and Sebastian Arius’ three-point attempt came up short.

The Lions’ league championship hopes are still alive. If they win out in games against Decatur and Kentlake, they will split a league title with Federal Way. But that’s not the end goal. The goal is to make it to the Tacoma Dome.

“The best stories have a little bit of adversity in them. To go 20-0 would have been monumental and wonderful from all standpoints. But I think winning feels better after you have learned some lessons,” White said. “I could care less whether we get a league championship or not, if we don’t get to play in the dome. That’s the type of mindset they have to have too.”