The Garfield Bulldogs took down the Lake Washington Kangaroos 62-52, clinching a spot in the 3A State Playoffs. It was an awesome battle between two good teams and Garfield came away with a 10 point victory. The Bulldogs star player and captain, Legend Smiley, had a strong performance and helped lead the team to a huge victory.
Smiley, averaging over 30 points a game, just recently received the District 2 MVP award and, because of this game, finally hit 1000-career points for Garfield. Smiley is still a junior and has a lot of time until his high school career is over. He also recently was voted SB Live’s National Player of the week. Not to say he didn’t have help, Brandon Roy Jr, son of coach and former NBA star Brandon Roy, has been kicking it up lately as well shooting 59% from field goal range, and 50% from the 3 point line.
Garfield came into this game with a 16-5 record overall and a 13-3 record in district. The Lake Washington Kangaroos came in with a 15-11 record overall and a 9-6 record in district. Although Garfield was favored, they were coming off of a narrow 56-52 victory against O’Dea and may have been on edge. Meanwhile Lake Washington was coming off of an encouraging 62-51 victory against Nathan Hale. Nonetheless, Garfield rallied to handle business against the Kangaroos.
Garfield is headed into the semi-final game against Eastside Catholic on February 15th at 8 pm. This game certainly will be a battle for both teams. Eastside is coming off of a strong 46 point win over Liberty, however last time they met Garfield survived by 1 point after Jacob Cofie missed the game-winning shot. Lake Washington is headed to a win or go home game vs. Liberty to claim a lingering spot in state on February 16th at 6:30 PM.
