Bethel's height, defense too much for FWay

By CASEY OLSON

The Mirror

They are two boys basketball teams with opposite styles. The Federal Way Eagles are one of the more athletic squads in the state, while the Bethel Braves use defense and a pair of 6-foot-8 forwards to win ballgames.

Tuesday night, the slow and prodding Braves dominated. The No. 2-ranked Braves rolled by the No. 3 Eagles in Graham, 58-48.

Federal Way entered the game averaging over 80 points a game, including 105 in a Dec. 10 win over Jefferson. But the Eagles couldn’t get anything going Tuesday, allowing Bethel to control the tempo of the game.

The two teams played pretty even until midway through the second quarter. Bethel held a 21-16 lead before the Braves went on a 19-3 run that extended into the third quarter to go up 40-19. Federal Way tried to come back, but never threatened and never cut the Brave lead to less than double-digits.

The Eagles were led by the 26 points of junior Earnest Williams. Bethel, the two-time defending South Puget Sound League South Division champs, was led by the 19 points and 12 rebounds of Eastern Washington University-signee Brandon Moore and 14 points from the reigning SPSL South player of the year Jordan Sutton.

Federal Way played another huge game last night against the 10th-ranked Curtis Vikings (after press time). Federal Way, Curtis, Bethel, Puyallup and Emerald Ridge all sat 3-1 in league play before last night’s games.

Bethel (58) — Moore 19, Sutton 14, Turner 12, Purugganan 7, Tiefenthaler 6.

Federal Way (48) — Williams 26, Morris Anderson 10, Terrell Smith 7, Dwayne Alo 3, Jon Flood 2.

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