Balanced Lincoln, Frazier’s 3-point shooting lift Abes past Beamer in Willie Stewart Showcase

Todd Beamer looked to be in command early, winning the tipoff and drawing first blood as senior Mackenzie Bond drove to the basket for the easy layup.

Bond would finish the game with 15 points. But Beamer wasn’t ale to hold off the onslaught of offense that came from this Lincoln High School girls basketball team.

Nashontae Frazier made five 3-pointers on her way to 15 points as part of four players in double figures for the sixth-ranked (3A) Abes in their 57-41 win over the eighth-ranked (4A) Titans on Monday in the Willie Stewart MLK Showcase at Lincoln High School.

“She’s a shooter. That’s something that we rely on for her and she got some looks,” Lincoln coach Jamila Jones said. “There was a couple hammer passes that you don’t normally see in high school basketball that were some really good looks.”

Frazier had a simple formula.

Get open, and let the shots fly.

“And they were just hitting tonight so I just let it keep going,” Frazier said. “We ran the same play like five times in a row and I don’t think they caught on. I think they tried, but I just didn’t let it get to me.”

Sharayah Johnson added 12 points for Lincoln (13-1), but she ended up getting injured early in the fourth quarter.

“She’ll be all right. She’s a big part of what we do. I think she wanted to go (back in),” Jones said. “You gotta have faith in the rest of your team to close the game out for her. We got bigger plans for her.”

Before the matchup, there was an honoring of Willie Stewart, the first African American Principal in Tacoma.

Stewart spoke on the legacy of Martin Luther King and how he would have valued the implementation of Title IX with how it increased access to sports. Stewart then left center court to a round of applause and the game began.

Kondalia Montgomery and Faith Brantley scored another 12 points each for Lincoln and helped hold off a late push from Beamer. Lincoln took a 37-18 lead into halftime against 4A North Puget Sound League Olympic-leading Beamer (11-3).

“I’ve been saying all year that we’re pretty deep. I have confidence in everybody on the team,” Jones said. “They came through. It wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t pretty, but it was still a win.”

Lincoln’s lone issue this game — fouls. The Abes had five players in foul trouble, including A’shia Donahue fouling out of the game as Todd Beamer made a late push which saw them get within 10 points.

“I’m not sure we adjusted well to kinda how the game was being officiated,” Jones said. “We got a lot of random ticky tack fouls but you know, we’ll be better because of it.”

But Jones said Lincoln’s intensity all over the court gave them the decisive win. The Abes’ full-court press forced turnovers down the stretch that allowed Lincoln to stretch its lead.

“We want to play 90 feet and then sideline to sideline,” Jones said. “When you have the kind of bodies that we have, I think it allows for you to do that.”

This story was originally published January 15, 2018 at 10:55 PM with the headline "Balanced Lincoln, Frazier’s 3-point shooting lift Abes past Beamer in Willie Stewart Showcase."