The Lincoln boys had no answer for Lake Washington center Darien Nelson-Henry in Monday’s King Holiday Hoopfest at the University of Washington.
The 6-foot-10 player scored 35 points in leading the Kangaroos to a 68-58 victory over the Abes, the seventh-ranked team in 3A.
Despite their strong comeback from a 25-8 deficit after the first quarter, Lincoln coach Aubrey Shelton was less than pleased with the Abes’ performance.
“We played terrible,” Shelton said. “You have to give credit to Lake Washington. They totally exposed our biggest weakness, which is we can’t guard a big guy. So that’s something we absolutely have to work on.”
Nelson-Henry, who is committed to attend the Ivy League’s University of Pennsylvania, used his massive frame – four inches taller than any Lincoln player – to fill up the basket on 16-for-20 accuracy from the field. He added 15 rebounds, four blocks and three assists.
“He was a load,” Shelton said. “We couldn’t stop him. We tried to adjust our defenses a bunch, but we just weren’t ready. With a 9 a.m. game, you never know what you’re going to get and we got a bunch of sleepy guys that weren’t ready to play.”
Lincoln tried numerous defenses to stop Nelson-Henry without success.
“We mixed it up,” Shelton said, “we did … a bunch of different zones,” including a diamond-and-one and a 1-3-1.
Lincoln (11-3) outscored Lake Washington in the second quarter, 21-8, to cut its deficit to four at halftime.
But the Abes were never able to capture the lead.
“We adjusted our defense and we stopped … turning the ball over as much,” Shelton said of the second quarter. “We were attacking and getting decent shots and knocked down some 3s. If we can take care of the ball and not give up so many layups, we could be OK.”
Abes guard Tre’Shaun Lexing scored a team-high 23 points, grabbed seven rebounds and made six assists.
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