Federal Way routs Jackson in regionals to enter Tacoma Dome with a perfect record against in-state teams
Federal Way High School boys basketball will enter the Tacoma Dome next week with a perfect record against teams in Washington.
But, can the Eagles (24-2) win three more consecutive games to claim an elusive 4A state championship?
“Don’t worry about the future, just take care of today,” Eagles coach Yattah Reed said.
Saturday night at Puyallup High School, the third-seeded Eagles took care of sixth-seeded Jackson, 69-49, to secure a bye into Thursday’s state quarterfinals.
Jackson (18-5) will play a loser-out game in the first round Wednesday against Puyallup.
Federal Way’s five-star senior forward Jaden McDaniels and standout junior forward Tari Eason each poured in 15 points for the Eagles in the win.
McDaniels completed a double-double adding 10 rebounds, while Eason had four rebounds and two blocks despite missing much of the game in foul trouble.
“I just wait until the game comes to me and try to get my teammates involved,” McDaniels said. “I don’t want to force anything or take unnecessary shots.”
Jackson, which won an undefeated 4A Wesco title this season, did what it could to limit McDaniels early — but that only created more room for Federal Way’s sharp-shooting guards.
Jalen Womack led the way outside for the Eagles with 13 points, and added five rebounds and three steals.
Christian Liddell led the way for Jackson with 14 points, four rebounds and three assists, while Joe Capponi added 12 points and four boards.
“When you don’t have much film and you don’t know the team that well, I kind of just focus on what we need to do and what our style of play is — tighten up on some things we didn’t do well against Curtis (in the 4A West Central/Southwest bidistrict title game),” Reed said.
“We didn’t know much about Jackson. We have a history with Jackson, we’ve played them in the past, but obviously it’s different personnel. The main focus was what we can control, and we can control ourselves and our play.”
Federal Way built a comfortable double-digit lead by halftime, pushing it to 40-24, and it was never seriously threatened despite several short runs by the Timberwolves.
“We tried to apply a lot of pressure and then when the score started to run up, we just kind of slowed down at halftime and after that,” McDaniels said.
With a quarterfinals game against the winner of Mount Rainier-Richland looming Thursday, McDaniels is confident in how the Eagles are playing entering the tournament.
“We just have to practice, scout the teams and follow what coach tells us to do,” he said.
NO. 6 JACKSON | 8 | 16 | 12 | 13 | — | 49 |
NO. 3 FEDERAL WAY | 16 | 24 | 18 | 11 | — | 69 |
INDIVIDUAL SCORING
J – Christian Liddell 14, Kevin Han 2, Jesse Hoiby 2, Jaylen Searles 4, Carter Korab 2, Ben Olesen 9, Kyle Bigovich 4, Joe Capponi 12.
FW – Jaylen Wes-Williams 9, Jishai Miller 3, Jaden McDaniels 15, Jalen Womack 13, Bradley Graham 8, Michael Jatta 6, Tari Eason 15.
