Shoreline men’s steady play was not enough to knock off 2nd place Bellevue

Photo by Wilson Tsoi

By Drew Raher

The Dolphins fought and scrapped for the entire forty minutes, but in the end the 86-70 Bulldogs victory could be attributed to their advantage inside the painted area. The frontcourt combination of Austin O’Keefe and Anthony McLaughlin scored 23 points apiece and totaled 21 rebounds to offset the aggressive full court Shoreline defense that pestered an uncomfortable Bellevue team the whole evening.

The Dolphins remained neck-and-neck against the Bulldogs for the majority of the first half until Bellevue pulled away in the waning minutes to take a 43-33 lead into the locker room. The Bulldogs rode McLaughlin’s 12 points and O’Keefe’s ability to score inside and out during the first period. 

On the other hand, Shoreline’s Earl Thompson (So, Las Vegas, NV) carried the load as he tallied 13 first half points in only 15 minutes of play. Gage Carroll (So, Shoreline, WA) came off the bench to spark the Dolphins with two longs three pointers that would help spread out the Bellevue zone defense for the rest of the half.

Shoreline used accurate and timely passes to split Bellevue’s defense on multiple possessions. Thompson was typically the recipient of those passes as he manned the baseline.

The second period continued in a back-and-forth affair with the Bulldogs maintaining a double digit lead, though it felt like Shoreline was always in striking distance. Around the 6 minute mark the Dolphins trailed by 17 points, but used pressure, trapping defense to jolt themselves right back into the game.

Shoreline would finally cut into the double-digit deficit and would get as close as 6 points behind some timely scoring from Ryan Reyes (Fr, Kalihi Valley, HI) and Artez Scharer (So, Seattle, WA). Austin Jordt (Fr, Big Fork, MT) was also inserted during crunch time and swiped two passes, which resulted in a Thompson slam. Bellevue, though, pulled away in the final minutes as they went to the charity stripe 41 times and knocked down 78% of those tries that sealed the deal.

The Dolphins were led by Thompson’s game-high 32 points on 46% shooting. He scored in a variety of ways, whether it was off the dribble or on a pull-up jumper, Thompson was determined to keep his team in the game; the rest of the Dolphins responded in similar fashion. Carroll contributed 12 points off the bench as the only other double-digit scorer.

Shoreline Community College (4-17, 0-9) will travel to face Olympic College on Saturday.

Stat of the Night: Earl Thompson has now scored over 30 points five times on the season and ranks 8th in the NWAACC in total points.

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