BY GERARDO BOLONG

Contributing Writer

It was a night for ties to be broken and a dominating third quarter propelled Highline High School to a 54-41 win against visiting Steilacoom on Fri., Jan. 26, to break a three-way tie for second place in the SPSL 2A Sound Division and elevate the Rams into no worse than a division third place with one division game remaining.

Currently, the Pirates (10-3 Sound) are tied with Clover Park for second place, but the Warriors hold a tie-breaker against HHS. The Pirates lead the Sentinels by one game while holding a tie-breaker over Steilacoom.

A win against Renton plus a Steilacoom defeat of CP would give the Pirates second place on the division. In any event, the Pirates would host a district game following league division crossovers.

"We got off to a good start and had smarter plays with aggression in the second half after a tough second quarter," said HHS head coach Shane Stenesen. "We had more running motion, secured rebounds and changed the tempo. Our bigs were beating them down the floor."

The tenor of the Friday fray turned mightily toward Highline's favor after both teams strained to make lay ups in the opening minutes of the second half as the Pirates escalated their efforts.

With five minutes and twenty-nine seconds left in third quarter game time and the Pirates on the short end of a 25-22 score, senior forward Nick Hovland received a pass for a back door lay up. Eighty five seconds later, Hovland rebounded and scored again from inside.

Running the court effectively for rebounds, steals and fast breaking baskets, HHS regained its effective passing and cuts to the basket to lead 32-27 on the way to quick transitions that completed an 18-2 demolition and a 40-27 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

After leading by as many as 15 points, the Pirates' margin was trimmed to 48-41 with just less than two minutes in regulation.

Gerald Hood's assist to a cutting to the basket Hovland stopped the Steilacoom rally in its tracks as part of 6-0 final Highline scoring blast to the end.

"We stepped up our defense and ran the court both ways aggressively," said Hovland, who co-authored the third quarter massacre on eight of his game total 16 points.

Jack Burcham joined Hovland for six points in the quarter on the way to his 16 points.

HHS opened the game by navigating the many open roads in the Sentinel defense.

As the Steilacoom Sentinels were continually caught looking on their watch, the Pirates kept sailing directly through the open door defense for easy shots on the way to a 12-0 command.

Good ball protection gave way to turnovers and missed lay ups by Highline.

Steilacoom switched to a far reaching man-to-man defense, effectively shutting down HHS cuts to the basket.

The Sentinels kept narrowing the Pirate lead to eventually take its first lead of the game at 18-16 with just less than four minutes until halftime and lengthened the gap to 20-16 before two short range baskets by Jack Burcham tied the score at 20-all on the way to the Steilacoom 25-23 intermission lead.

"Their man defense put us on a lull and we weren't cutting hard," added Stenesen.

Hood gunned in nine Pirate points with David Perkins notching seven points added to the six-point effort of Nokola Rose.

Nehemiah Shird was deadly for Steilacoom with 15 points. Deshawn Martin-Banks and Torrey Banks scored 20 points apiece.

HHS travels to unbeaten, first place Renton for a 7 p.m. game on Tues., Jan. 30, before hosting  Mountain division Evergreen the next night in the final event of the current gym structure. The high school will undergo new construction for approximately three years.