HS Basketball: Timberline Outruns Lakes In Fast Paced PSL-Nisqually Battle

1/7/25

Lakes Lancers 15/25/15/12 – 67
Timberline Blazers 19/22/12/23 – 76

(Lacey, WA) Going into the game, the top of the PSL-Nisqually had three teams with two losses in league play: Lakes, North Thurston, and Timberline. Lakes and Timberline clashed for the top spot in the league halfway through the season.

The first quarter started off with Timberline scoring the first 10 points and getting off to a great start on both ends of the floor. The Blazers forced a few Lakes turnovers while cashing in on the offensive end to grab the early double-digit lead. A couple of times, Timberline had their lead get up to 11 points. With 40 seconds left in the quarter, the Blazers were up 19-8, but Lakes went on a 7-0 run, which was capped off by Bryce McCray, who stole the ball with five seconds left, ran down the floor, used a fantastic euro step move around his defender for the layup as time expired to make it 19-15 with Timberline leading.

In the second quarter, the offenses were scorching, with both teams racking up over 20 points and using a variety of ways to score. Timberline controlled the lead until Lakes got a basket from Jalen Boone through contact to give the Lancers their first lead of the game at 29-28. After trading buckets, Timberline would grab the lead at 32-31 and held it for the rest of the half. The two sides continued to score at a rapid pace as Timberline held a 41-40 halftime lead. Lakes had a big second quarter from Deonte’ Jones who scored nine points, and both Darius Imperial and Jalen Boone each had seven in the high-octane quarter. Timberline’s Damari Evans had two threes and eight points for the Blazers en route to a game-high 13 points in the first half.

In the third quarter, the defenses for each team held the other to the lowest-scoring quarter in the game. Jalen Boone had another good quarter for Lakes, pouring in six more points while continuing to anchor the Lancers’ tenacious zone defense. It was back-and-forth action with the teams trading baskets once again, but for the final few minutes, the defenses locked down and held both sides to minimal points. Lakes held a 55-53 lead going into the fourth.

Timberline erupted for a 17-4 run to open up the quarter and take their biggest lead of the game. Damari Evans hit his sixth three of the game in the middle of the run to give the junior a game-high 22 points. Kenyon Simmons had a big fourth quarter, too, getting eight points for the Blazers. Timberline’s defense seemed to gain momentum with each basket they scored on the offensive end, forcing Lakes to have to take some difficult shots as they had to try and come from behind quickly. Timberline’s lead stayed around 10 points for the remainder of the game, as the Blazers game-high 23 points in the quarter while holding Lakes to their lowest quarter-point total of 12 proved to be the difference. Timberline would get the win 76-67 over Lakes.

Timberline improves to 6-6 overall and 5-2 in the PSL-Nisqually and stands at the top of the league standings. The Blazers will take on another PSL-Nisqually team in Capital on Wednesday.

Lakes drops down to 7-4 overall and 3-3 in league play, and travels to Peninsula on Wednesday for more league action.

Our elisportsnetwork.com Game MVP went to Damari Evans from Timberline. Evans told us after the game that his 22 points and six three-pointers were both career-highs. Evans did a great job finding the open spot on the floor against the Lakes zone that can give teams headaches, and the first-year varsity athlete made it look easy with his excellent shooting.

Timberline’s Kenyon Simmons had a great night also, scoring 21 points and had a big impact rebounding and defensively. DJ Falco had 13 points for the Blazers, Josh Tichenor ran the point well and had 10 points, Isaiah Tillman had eight points and Leon Heilman had two points.

Lakes’ Khaleb Chisholm had 17 points, including three three-pointers to lead the Lancers in scoring, Jalen Boone was electric with 16 points, Darius Imperial had a good night coming off the bench with 12 points, Deonte’ Jones had 11 points, Bryce McCray had six points, Ray Smith had 3 points and Aaron Miller had two points, but blocked multiple shots in the post while collecting rebounds for the Lancers.

Click here to watch the full game replay.

ESN Talks With Game MVP, Timberline’s Damari Evans