Sixth-ranked Lincoln scrapes out a 47-40 win at No. 7 Bethel

Jamila Jones doesn’t care if the basketball is ugly, edgy or free-flowing.

His sixth-ranked Lincoln girls basketball team knows one way to win games: Be the aggressor.

In a tense, highly-anticipated first matchup between the top two programs in the 3A Pierce County League, the Abes finally found a way to overcome No. 7 Bethel, 47-40, at Ed Niehl Gymnasium in Spanaway.

With the win, Lincoln (9-1, 6-0 in 3A PCL) moved into sole possession of first place in the league over the Braves (10-1, 5-1), who suffered their first loss of the season.

Ninth grader Sharayah Johnson led all scorers with 16 points, six in the final 5:46. Nashante Frazier also hit two momentum-changing corner 3-pointers, the last coming from the left side, to give the Abes the lead for good, 41-40, with 2:22 to go.

Lincoln closed the game on a 9-0 run.

“This is what we do,” Jones said. “At the end of the day, we want to play hard. If we lose because somebody outworks us, then so be it. But it is hard to keep up with us when we play hard.”

This was a big early-January showdown in Bethel’s gymnasium. The Braves had won all 10 of their games by 20 or more points.

And Tiarra Brown’s kiss-the-front-rim 3-pointer from the top arc midway through the third quarter gave Bethel its largest advantage, 32-24.

But Frazier answered with her own 3-pointer for Lincoln, which kept hanging around.

It did not help that the Braves’ Brown sister tandem, Tiarra (11 points) and Tianna (three points), sat much of the third quarter with four fouls.

“That killed us,” Bethel coach John Ainslie said.

Ninth grade point guard Esmeralda Morales (team-high 14 points) kept the Braves in the lead as long as she could in the fourth quarter. But the team made just two of 14 field goal attempts, and was forced into 22 turnovers for the game.

“We just worked hard, came together and did not let the score mess up our plan,” Lincoln guard Faith Brantley said.

After the Abes took a 41-40 lead, next time down, Brantley fed the 6-foot-5 Johnson in the post. She turned and went down the left side, and was fouled making an inside bucket with 90 seconds remaining.

Lincoln just wouldn’t let the Bethel shooters get any position to shoot, collecting two steals by Azallee Johnson and Brantley, who dove into the Bethel bench to save the basketball, in the final minute.

“They have three tremendous guards, but I have five tremendous defenders,” Jones said. “I will take my 10 (regulars) anywhere, to any fight.”

This story was originally published January 5, 2018 at 9:51 PM with the headline "Sixth-ranked Lincoln scrapes out a 47-40 win at No. 7 Bethel."