Bellevue Wins in Double-Overtime Thriller over Lake Washington

Kendrick Van Ackeren stood at the free throw line with 8.9 seconds left in regulation, his team needing his free throw to tie the game and the opposing crowd screaming as loud as it could, and thought of one thing.

Football.

Van Ackeren channeled his inner-quarterback calm to tie the game in regulation and Bellevue survived a serious threat to advance to KingCo 3A championship game with a win 68-64 in two overtimes against Lake Washington on Tuesday at Bellevue College.

"I'm not the best at free throws," Van Ackeren said. "For some reason, whenever I'm up there, I think about football. It's like playing quarterback at that last second. You've got to play, you've got to do your thing...don't worry about the crowd, don't worry about anybody around you. So I just blanked everybody out and focused on the free throw."  

Bellevue is glad he did. A victory seemed assured for the Wolverines, as they led by nine with under five minutes to play, thanks in large part to the impressive play of sophomore point guard Will Locke. Locke scored 25 points, including 11 in the first quarter.

But Lake Washington staged a furious rally, rattling off a 13-1 run in four minutes to take a 54-51 lead with under 20 seconds left. After Locke missed a three-point attempt with 18 seconds remaining, it looked like the Kangaroos would have a chance to seal the win at the free throw line. 

But Cole Walton corralled a tipped inbounds pass with under 12 seconds left, turned, and found a streaking Van Ackeren, who took the pass, hung in the air, was fouled and finished the lay-up before hitting his free throw.

Bellevue had a chance to win in the first overtime, but Kramer Taylor, whose three gave Lake Washington its lead late in regulation, hit on another three with 38 seconds left to send it to a second overtime.

"In practice you see him, he's just dead on every time," Lake Washington head coach Barry T. Johnson said of Kramer. "We were like, ok, game time, we need you to hit some big shots and he came through today."

In the second OT, four different Bellevue players scored and Taylor narrowly missed another tying three-point attempt with 5 seconds left to hand the Wolverines the victory.

For Lake Washington, it was nearly the second major upset in a matter of three days. The Kangs came back to beat Sammamish on Saturday after trailing by 17 at halftime and almost did it again against Bellevue.

"I think it was more from last Saturday," Lake Washington head coach Barry T. Johnson said of his teams comeback. "We found out that if we worked hard and willed ourselves that we could come back."

Lake Washington, who will play Mount Si on Tuesday (3:00 pm, Bellevue College) was led by the post-duo of Guy Lynnot and Darien Nelson Henry. Lynott scored 10 points in the fourth quarter, while Nelson Henry had eight in the third. The two combined for 32 points and at least 20 rebounds on the night. Nelson Henry fouled out late in the first overtime.

The win puts Bellevue in the KingCo championship game (Thursday 6:30, Bellevue College), where they will face familiar foe Mercer Island, who beat Mount Si earlier in the day. The two teams have met in three of the past four KingCo championship games.

"It's out third one against them," Van Ackeren said. "We don't care who they have, we're going to play our game. They get their guys back, ok, that doesn't matter to us, we're playing our game."