Nik Landdeck paced anxiously on the baseline, high-fiving and bear hugging anybody who stepped within range.
“I couldn’t ask for anymore,” said the Issaquah senior on Tuesday, after his Eagles downed league-leading Skyline 59-56 in overtime. “That’s the way to go out right there.”
In what was the final home game for eight Issaquah seniors, the Eagles overcame several obstacles, including a nine-point deficit with under 4 minutes remaining in regulation.
“Just for us compete the way we did and have the pride and the respect to help those seniors go out on top and get a win is awesome,” Eagles’ head coach Jason Griffith said.
Down 43-34 with 3:51 left in the contest, things didn’t look good for Issaquah — a team that was just mathematically eliminated from the playoffs a few days earlier.
A timeout called by Griffith, however, resulted in a quick change.
“We just talked in the timeout, got our guys motivated and started bringing up the pressure on defense and then it led to our offense,” said junior Nick Price, who scored a team-high 18 points.
Issaquah forced Skyline into six of its 23 turnovers in the fourth quarter, eventually tying the game with 15 seconds left at 48-48 on a layup from junior Fletcher Martin.
The Spartans scored the first bucket of overtime, but after that it was all Eagles.
Landdeck gave Issaquah its first lead of the game, 51-50, knocking down a 5-foot jump shot with 2:42 to go in OT. Steven Rael and Price recorded back-to-back steals and layups with 46 seconds left pushing the lead to 56-51.
“We’ve got a little trend going that I’m not liking too much,” said Skyline head coach J. Jay Davis, of his team’s turnovers.
The Spartan, who have been without starting guard Will Parker due to a high-ankle sprain, had 30 turnovers in their previous loss to Garfield.
“It showed itself big time tonight,” Davis said. “We couldn’t run our offense because we couldn’t get into the front court comfortably.”
Skyline got off to a fast start on Tuesday — particularly on the defensive side of the ball — taking a 22-12 lead into the locker room.
Max Browne led the Spartans in the first half, scoring six of his team-high 18 points.
Issaquah, which improved to 4-9 in league and 7-12 overall, received 11 points apiece from Landdeck and Martin.
The Eagles close the season out at 8 p.m., Friday at Redmond.
Skyline, which could have locked up the KingCo Crest title with a win, dropped to 8-5 in league and 12-7 overall. The Spartans close out the regular season at 8 p.m., Friday at home against Plateau rival Eastlake. A win will lock up the top seed in the Crest. A loss would move them into a tie with Newport and a possible three-way tie with Redmond.
