It's still all about the team.

Cody Miller's torrid, but steady, 27 points, 12 rebounds and three steals led a totally team oriented Seattle Christian boys basketball offense and defense in a 57-38 roping of the visiting Chimacum Cowboys in a quarterfinal round win of the 2012 1A Tri-District tournament on Tuesday, February 14.

With a berth in the state regional Hardwood Classic assured as one of the final four teams left in Tri-District, the District III No.1 seeded Warriors (17-3) will try to improve upon their tournament seeding with two additional games scheduled at Mountlake Terrace High School.

"We're playing good as a team," said Miller. "We found openings and just took our shots. On defense, we were getting up on their shooters to get hands in their faces. We wanted to give them no uncontested shots."

In the first quarter, the teams battled to four ties until two Cowboy three-pointers sandwiched around a Miller three turned a 13-11 disadvantage into a 17-15 Chimacum lead after one quarter.

Action in the second quarter featured an early tie at 21-all and three lead exchanges ahead of a Joey Grachek three-point rocket that sent SCS shooting into halftime with a 25-23 lead.

Richard Jensen's driving basket began an eight point scoring run that ended with Chaise DeVries blasting inside for a basket and ensuing free throw conversion. With the DeVries three-point play, Seattle Christian led by double figures at 33-23 as 4:57 loomed in the third quarter.

Chimacum had one strong ride left. Quinn Eldridge fired home a trey to begin a 6-0 Cowboy trail ride that resulted in Chimacum being within 29-25 with just a little more than three minutes left in the quarter.

Jensen's put back basket followed by Miller's steal and driving lay up bucket grew the SCS margin up to 38-29 and the Cowboys galloped no closer than within seven points the rest of the way..

Miller scored the last nine points of a 13-0 Warrior fourth quarter spree that lasted slightly longer than four minutes while also keeping the Cowboys unhorsed in the scoring department for more than four minutes with SCS on top, 55-35. Having been challenged all the way against tight defense, the Cowboy shooters finally fell off completely with one-shot possessions leading to Warrior rebounds and outlet passes. The greatest difference in the game was 21 points at 57-36.

DeVries picked up his game in the second half to finish with 11 points and seven rebounds while being a powerful force on the interior defense as part of the SCS all court coverage.

"I played stronger," DeVries said. "I had to make sure to go through and play physical."

Jensen added 11 points to augment the SCS scoring total and could be found hustling all over the court as well.

Seattle Christian held Chimacum to 30 per cent shooting from the filed while finding good shot opportunities to the tune of 24-of-56 and a 42.9 percent field goal shooting efficiency thanks to a 14-of-24 second half marksmanship percent.

"I'm just thrilled," said Seattle Christian head coach Shaun DeYager. "It's a great feeling to get to this spot. We're not satisfied, yet. It's already time to get ready for Thursday against our friends and rivals of Lynden Christian. We've got to be able to close down their shooters. The defense has to be there."

State 10th-ranked Seattle Christian lost a 57-41 non-league game at Lynden Christian early in the season. The game was close until the last three minutes. The friendly rivalry part comes into play because state No. 5 Lynden Christian is coached by former long time SCS coach Roger DeBoer.