Free throws hold off Falcons in final minute

In a thrilling finish, Bothell High outlasted Woodinville High, 54-49, in a 4A Kingco boys basketball matchup last Friday.

The game, a back-and-forth battle filled with momentum swings, came down to clutch free-throw shooting in the waning seconds after both squads were over the team limit early in the fourth quarter.

Bothell’s big man Michael Hartvigson, a 6-foot-6 center, drained one to give the Cougars a four-point lead, 51-47, with 52.6 seconds left on the clock. And on the next possession, Falcon senior Kyle Clifford hit a jumper to close the gap to two.

“It was a pretty crazy (fourth quarter), but we just stayed in there and fought hard until the end,” Hartvigson said. “We didn’t give up.”

Leading 52-49 with 3.9 seconds left, Bothell’s Devin Willis was intentionally fouled and sent to the line for one free throw plus a penalty shot, essentially for the game.

The senior guard took a deep breath and calmly flipped both balls into the hoop to make it a two-possession game and seal the win for the Cougars.

“I thought I was going to make them,” said Willis about his game-winners. “We shoot a lot of free throws in practice. It’s all about repetition.”

Bothell head coach Ron Bollinger, after suffering a defeat to Redmond the Tuesday before, was pleased to see his team rebound with a win.

“We definitely had our worst game of the year at Redmond last Tuesday, so it was good to see that they could bounce back like that,” he said.

2nd-quarter struggle

Fans that witnessed the second quarter of Friday’s game saw just how much of a factor momentum is in high-school basketball.

The Cougars jumped out to an early 15-6 lead on the Falcons, who shot just 3-of-14 in the opening frame. As soon as the second quarter started, however, the tide began to turn.

In stepped Woodinville senior Ryan Gilkey, one of Kingco’s tallest kids at 6-8 and a dominating force down low.

Gilkey shot five of his team’s first six field goals of the quarter, making three of them, and twice grabbed his own missed shot for a putback.

Compounding the Cougars’ difficulties is that Hartvigson got into early foul trouble and was forced to sit as the Falcons started the quarter on a 13-0 run on 6-of-10 shooting.

Nearly six minutes into the period, Bothell junior guard Kyle McAllister drove in for a layup, and then the floodgates opened for the Bothell Blue, while the Falcons’ shooting went ice cold.

Bothell closed the quarter on a 10-0 run to retake the lead, 25-19, heading into the locker room at halftime.

Bollinger was toying with the idea of putting Hartvigson back in, but, fortunately, his players found a rhythm before the game got out of hand.

“We hit a couple baskets and the little guys did some things out there and got us back into the lead,” said Bollinger of the wild second quarter. “That’s the way these kids have been playing all year, they just don’t quit.”

The win was a true offensive team effort for Bothell, which spread the scoring duties around. Junior guard Oliver Hurtin scored a team-high 15, followed by Willis with 13 and Hartvigson, McAllister and wingman Robby Storm with eight apiece.

Playing in his second game of the season for Woodinville after recovering from an injury, Gilkey led all scorers with 17.

Gutsy kids

Bollinger knew that Bothell’s offense wasn’t quite at its best during the game. The Cougars missed some key foul shots late in the contest and shot just 2-of-9 from beyond the arc in the first half, but the 14th-year head coach was proud of his team’s fortitude to grind out a win.

“I was proud of our guts,” Bollinger said. “They gutted it out, and even though they missed some free throws and got in foul trouble, they made enough plays to win the game.”

The win improved Bothell to 5-2 on its league season and 6-4 overall, and gives the Cougars a bit of momentum going into what will by far be the toughest stretch of their regular-season play.

They lost to 4A No. 2-ranked Kentwood, 55-39, in a nonleague game on Monday in the King Holiday Hoopfest at the University of Washington, and then are matched up against league powerhouses Garfield and Roosevelt later in the week.

“We need to stay healthy, and keep improving defensively,” said Bollinger when asked what needs to happen in order for the Cougars to make a deep postseason run. “With only Michael in the middle, we’re hurting, especially against a team like Roosevelt or Garfield.”

In addition, Bothell isn’t the most physically imposing in the league. But according to Bollinger, what the Cougars lack in size, they make up for in heart.

“If you look at the (league), everybody is bigger and taller than us,” Bollinger noted. “Those kids, they got guts, and heart.”