Federal Way stayed ahead of the pack in the South Puget Sound League North Division boys basketball race with a 73-48 win at Thomas Jefferson Thursday.
The Eagles improved to 11-2 with the win over the crosstown rival Raiders, keeping them just ahead of Kentwood (10-2), Kentridge (10-3) and Auburn (10-4).
Auburn-Riverside held the fifth and final SPSL tournament bid going into Saturday’s round of play at 6-7, which pitted the Ravens against TJ (5-9). Kentlake (5-7) is also in the running.
Federal Way was set to visit Kentlake after press time Saturday before coming home to play Kent-Meridian (1-11) Tuesday and Tahoma (0-13) this coming Friday at 7:30 p.m.
After playing Auburn-Riverside, the Raiders finished with a visit to third place Kentridge Tuesday.
“We hope to play our best basketball at the end of the year,” said Federal Way head coach Jerome Collins.
When playing TJ, Collins found himself going against a former player in Raiders head coach David Stone. All of the coaches for both teams hugged each other before Thursday’s game.
“I’d rather win and see him lose,” Collins said. “But his kids are playing hard.”
Federal Way jumped out to an 8-0 lead, with junior Cole Dickerson scoring six of the points and sophomore Jaleel Williams putting in the other two. Dickerson is the younger brother of former NBA regular Michael Dickerson.
But defense was the story of the first quarter, with Federal Way leading 10-3 at the end of it.
“I thought we came out and did a good job defensively, but we had too many unforced turnovers,” Collins said.
TJ closed to within 22-19 with just over one minute to play in the second quarter. Jeff Forbes of the Eagles then sank a three-pointer to make it 25-19 before TJ’s Spencer Hicks sank one of two free throws to close it to 25-20. But the Eagles’ Isiah Umipig scored right before the buzzer and Dickerson continued the run with a dunk to open the third quarter. Andre Barrington stretched it to six-straight points and a 31-20 lead and Federal Way rolled on from there.
Dickerson led all scorers with 26 points with Barrington scoring 16 and Michael Hale III striking for 11.
Xavyr Moss and Sam Sanford paced TJ with 13 points each and Cramer Doughty hit nine.
