After last week’s loss to the Olympic Rangers, the Trojans felt a sense of urgency as they entered the game against Shoreline Community College. From tip off, you could tell that EvCC wouldn’t play up to their reputation of being a second half team. They came out running the court at full speed on offense, and rotated as a full court defense all night. This would mean that the bench would be used heavily, but that didn’t matter to the Trojans as every player seemed to be moving with fire tonight.

The Dolphins did not have an answer for the Trojans as the rest of first half was filled with impenetrable defense, and shots that always seemed to fall. Quadir Williams had this to say about the full court defense, “It gets our legs warm early, we start to get a lot of momentum and start to get up on teams which makes us feel better as a team.” Williams would go on to hit from beyond the arc three times to extend the lead 27 – 14 with 10:00 left in the first half. At this point, Coach Walker would begin to sub out most of his starters, and let some players deeper on the bench come out, and provide a spark. With mostly a second unit, until the end of the first half, the Dolphins would still not find an answer as they kept slipping farther and farther behind.

At the end of the first half, the Trojans would be up 55 – 31 on the Dolphins. The Trojans rested a lot of their starters early as the bench consisted of approximately 40% of the total playing time. Brevin Brown came out and took advantage of his minutes putting up eight points in eight minutes of play. When asked about his spark off the bench Brevin said, “Most people in college were the man in high school. I kind of had to adjust to that role and I like it.” The first half came down to who played more efficiently as Everett shot 58.8% from the field, an incredible 72.7% from beyond the arc, and 77.8% from the free throw line. Shoreline had a much different first half in efficiency as they shot 36.1% from the field, 14.3% from the three point line, and 60.0% from the charity stripe.

In the beginning of the second half, the Trojans would take off where they started as Said Hersi dropped a three in the first few seconds. Over the next six minutes the Trojans would maintain their lead and Hersi again and again from beyond the arc. A couple minutes later Derek Brown Jr. would make a jaw-dropping four point play that ignited the crowd into a deafening yell. With 11:00 left in the game the Trojans would still be boasting a blow out with a score of 79 – 48 over the Shoreline Dolphins. With 9:15 left in the game the Trojans would never have more than one starter on the court at a time. The entire team was clicking from the starting five to the last man off the bench and the teamwork was a thing of beauty.

The rest of the second half was sparked by the incredible play of Brevin Brown and the rest of the bench as they easily glided to a blowout victory. The Trojans would go on to win in a 35 point blowout over the Dolphins with a final score of 107 – 72. Brevin Brown posted 22 points and 7 rebounds, both team highs, while four other players ended with double digit points. When asked about the incredible offense that led to the blowout Derek Brown Jr. said, “When you put in extra shots and extra work, in and after practice, it will look like that.”