Big third quarter lifts No. 2 Lynnwood over Prairie

The No. 2 Lynnwood Royals began their title defense at Tacoma Dome Thursday against the Prarie Falcons. Though, if you just watched the first half, you may have been a little surprised to hear that the Royals were the defending champions.

Lynnwood forward Mikayla Pivec led all scorers with 15 points and pulled down 20 rebounds as the Royals stepped on the gas in the second half and pulled away for a 47-36 victory

Lynnwood knocked down just eight of their 27 first-half shots and gave up six 3-pointers on the defensive end, taking a 22-20 lead into halftime.

However, if you stuck around for the third quarter, you would have understood why the Royals are not only the defending champions, but also 24-0.

They held the Falcons scoreless for the first seven minutes out of the break and used the third quarter to build a 14-point lead.

“We take a lot of pride in our third quarter, that’s probably our biggest one, ” said head coach Everett Edwards. “It was 22-20, we were struggling to score the basketball, I felt we were playing good enough defense to win the game but we were struggling to score points. So we needed that third quarter to relax the nerves a little bit, because in an environment like this nerves are going to be high. I think our kids really stepped up in getting a little separation and then holding.”

With the victory, the Royals move on to face the No. 1 Bellevue Wolverines in the semifinals at 7:15 p.m.

Forward Mikayla Pivec, who scored a game-high 15 points and also pulled down a game-high 20 rebounds, said the team looks forward to the matchup, even if it is a day earlier than they would like.

“Yeah we were hoping to get them in the state championship,” the Oregon State commit said. “But it is what it is, that’s how it came out in the draw, so we will see them tomorrow. They are a very good team, got a couple of really good point guards in Anna (Wilson) and Quinessa (Caylao-Do) and they’ve also got some really good inside threats.”

This story was originally published March 3, 2016 at 9:03 PM with the headline "Big third quarter lifts No. 2 Lynnwood over Prairie."