EVERSON — Blaine has played upset to a couple opponents this season and the Borderites hadn’t lost in a month coming into the District 1 title game against Lynden Christian.
Having dropped only one game this season, the Lyncs wanted to make sure they weren’t the latest to fall victim to a Blaine upset.
A fiery first half from Lynden Christian was too much for Blaine to overcome and the Lyncs rolled to an 86-57 win, claiming the district championship.
It was a back-and-forth affair for the first five or so minutes until the Lynden Christian offense started to find its stride.
The Lyncs held a 23-14 lead after the first quarter and it would only grow from there.
Senior Jamison Hintz came off the bench and scored 16 of his 19 total points in the second quarter, lighting a fire under the rest of the team as Lynden Christian pushed its lead to 51-26 at the end of the first half.
“He’s a spark plug,” Lyncs coach Tim Zylstra said of Hintz. “He’s a senior leader for us. When he gets going like that it’s hard to stop. He gets everybody fired up. He’s a fun player to watch when he gets going like that.”
Having not played since the Lynden game Jan. 28, Hintz said it felt good to be back on the court.
“[Shots] were just falling, but I got the ball from my teammates,” Hintz said.
Blaine put together a quick 5-0 run to start the second half, but Lynden Christian kept finding quality looks in the second half and continued to extend its lead.
Statistically, the Lyncs were slowed down in the second half compared to their scoring numbers in the first half, but Blaine couldn’t put up numbers of its own to dig itself out of the hole.
Zylstra said establishing themselves inside and then kicking the ball out fueled the offense all night.
“We shared the ball really good tonight,” Zylstra said. “It’s really fun to see the kids share like that and they all believe.”
Three Lyncs were in double figures with senior Andrew Hommes scoring a game-high 24 points. Hintz added 19 and junior Tyler Sipma scored 15.
“I wanted to dominate inside first,” Hommes said. “That mid-range and catch in the high-post, I saw that first one go in and was like, ‘If they’re going to keep giving me this, I might as well keep shooting it.’ My teammates kept finding me in the right spots and shots were falling tonight.”
The win put an end to Blaine’s seven-game win streak entering the game.
Lynden Christian will move on to play the No. 5 seed out of District 2 on Feb. 19 at King’s High School.
With the loss, the Borderites have one more chance to advance and will play Nooksack Valley Tuesday in a loser-out match.
