Lindbergh boys come up short against Sequim

When the Lindbergh Eagles boys basketball team took the court at the University of Puget Sound, they knew the task at hand was going to be a difficult one.

For the first time since 2020, the Eagles were in the state tournament with a trip to the Yakima Valley SunDome on the line against the Sequim Wolves. Despite the two schools being more than 110 miles apart, there was a bit of familiarity between these two sides.

Lindbergh fell for the second time this season to Sequim, 44-36, ending their season on Feb. 28 — a game shy of the round of 12 in the 2A bracket.

“I think it is tough because we faced a lot of adversity in that game that we just couldn’t overcome. Sequim is a hell of a team. I respect coach Brooks so much and his program. But it was tough, today was tough,” Head Coach Abraham Garcia said.

The first time these two teams met up was back on Dec. 2 of this season. Sequim won that game handily 63-44 at home.

Lindbergh this time around was a much different team, a battle-hardened squad. The Eagles advanced to the state tournament and were given the 16th seed, while Sequim was the ninth. The last 16 seed to beat a nine seed was Lindbergh back in 2016.

“We believed we could win this game from the jump. Seeing them early in the season where we were at and where we are now, we believe we are a much better team now than we were. From the very start, all of our boys were confident,” Garcia said.

The Eagles started the night with a layup from senior John Choul on his first shot attempt, taking a 2-0 lead. After that make, Lindbergh missed its next six shot attempts, allowing Sequim to gain some early momentum, taking an 8-2 lead over the Eagles.

“John is a testament of the culture I want to build as a coach. He’s one of the early guys (to practices), his leadership is incredible, he’s vocal and giving one hundred percent the entire game,” Garcia said.

At the end of the first quarter, Lindbergh was back in the game, but trailed 12-9. The second quarter saw the Eagles find their legs. Defensively, Lindbergh held Sequim to just seven points and found enough offense to take a 21-19 lead into the locker room at halftime.

“We were trying to expose the matchups. Their big guys were pretty slow on the backside, so we were just attacking them to get to the rack,” Choul said.

Lindbergh’s depth came into question in the second half as foul trouble and injuries started becoming more prevalent as the minutes ticked by. To keep up, the Eagles had to find a new source of offense. The Wolves were keying in on Choul, but he continued to dish the ball to his teammates. Sophomore Trinidad Valentino English hit a pair of three-pointers in the third quarter.

“Guys just committed to the game plan. We watched a lot of film, talked about a lot of things and they committed to it and stuck to it,” Garcia said. “These guys played a hell of a game.”

Another player who made an impact was junior Christan Serrano, who joins Huff, Talmadge, English and Ayoub Jarato as the future of the Eagles program.

“Our underclassmen are going to see how these guys handled the tournament this year and they are going to grow from that. I guarantee you next year, it is going to be a different outcome,” Garcia said.

At the end of the third, Liberty led 32-30 over Sequim, but had a challenge ahead of them heading to the fourth. Oliver Talmadge was sidelined with an injury he suffered in the first quarter. Lukas Lutthans and Huff were in foul trouble with four fouls while Suheyb Hassan was battling what looked like a hip injury.

“We were taught that defense and playing with our heart can get us through anything. No matter what, we are going to play it through,” Choul said.

The last eight minutes felt like an eternity for the Eagles as they saw their dreams of Yakima slipping through their fingers. Huff fouled out with 4:49 left in the game, Lutthans had to be lifted off the court with cramps, and Sequim kept making shot after shot.

John Choul’s four points in the fourth quarter were all Lindbergh could muster. The Eagles shot 2 of 10 from the field and were zero of 5 from the outside.

Choul is one of four seniors on the roster, but has been a leader for his entire career in an Eagle uniform.

“It was tough. I’m just glad I stayed and built a program. I stayed because of something an old player said, he said, ‘I want to build something, I don’t want to join something.’ I hope that I built something for the future,” Choul said.

RJ Westergaard, Lutthans, Hassan and Choul made the state tournament for the first time in their careers. Westergaard was the lone Eagle to not play due to a knee injury early in the season.

“All these guys did something this year that they hadn’t done all four years of their career. It’s the progression of who they were to who they are now. Making the state tournament is a testament to their work ethic. The love and admiration I have for those boys is through the roof,” Garcia said.