'They didn't give up' as Lynden Christian climbs out of huge second-half hole to shock defending 1A champion King's, 61-58

Lyncs trailed by as many as 16 points - and 11 with six minutes remaining before catching fire and downing the No. 1 Knights

YAKIMA – In its biggest hole of the season, when nothing was going right, first-year Lynden Christian coach Tim Zylstra’s advice to his team?

Keep doing what you do – find the open man, make jumpers and play defense.

Once again, the stay-the-course mantra paid off for the second-seeded Lyncs, who rallied from a 16-point deficit to beat No. 1 King’s 61-58 with a wild flurry at the end that LC senior Jamison Hintz best summed up by saying, well, by saying nothing at all.

"My brain is going 10,000 miles per hour, I can’t even talk," he said.

For the purposes of those watching, the game really didn’t get going until there were six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter and the Knights seemingly with a comfortable 11-point lead. King’s had led most of the way and nothing hinted of a rally.

About that time, all the little things – the passing, the shooting, the defense – clicked to build a comeback that left many like the Lyncs' sharpshooter – speechless.

"We were down by 16 at one point and I know everybody was losing hope in us but we know what we can do, we know what we can do as a team," Hintz said.

This comeback took the team.

It was Hintz hitting a couple treys, Tyler Sipma canning a long-ball shot, tournament MVP Andrew Hommes working down low for a layup and a three-point play.

And to its credit, King’s was game for a duel with Nick Linhardt answering with a 3-pointer, Cam Hiatt having another stellar game and star senior Jordan Hansen battling through an ankle injury that hobbled him this weekend.

There were 13 lead changes, many of those during the fourth quarter.

In the end, though, the Lyncs wouldn’t be denied.

"This is the best environment, we got Lynden behind our back," Hommes said. "In 2020 King’s got us and we didn’t want to happen again. We kept playing as a team and we like the result."

Sipma led the Lynden Christian with 16 points, while Hintz had 15 and Hommes totaled 14 points and 11 rebounds.

"Give the credit to the boys," said Zylstra, who guided the Lyncs to a 22-1 record with their only loss to 2A champion Lynden. "They didn’t give up."

The title is Lynden Christian’s seventh - with five of those coming in the SunDome.

King’s, which finished the season 24-3 with its only blemishes before Saturday to 3A power Garfield and 4A Woodinville, was led by Hiatt’s 18 points. Jake O’Hearn added 12 points and Hansen had 10.

"They made big shots down the stretch and they came out and took the game," said King’s coach Rick Skeen, who was looking to guide the Knights to their sixth championship, all of them won in Yakima.

Skeen lauded Hansen for his play this weekend. The Idaho State signee had a noticeable limp earlier in the tournament and sported a heavy tape job in the quarterfinal and a brace in Friday’s semifinal.

"I was really proud of him for gutting it out," Skeen said. "His ankle has a softball sticking out of it."