‘Lincoln basketball.’ Cardinals get final word against rival Cleveland, sending Seely-Roberts family to another state tournament — this time in 6A
By Alex Tam | Photos by Ken Waz
PORTLAND — Before Saturday’s game, Lincoln coach Heather Seely-Roberts made it a priority to show a couple specific video clips to her players as a little extra motivation.
The first? Last year’s heartbreaking second-round playoff game, which saw Cleveland bounce Lincoln from the state tournament picture.
The second? The two teams’ matchup a few weeks ago, with the Warriors pulling off a nail-biter — followed by a few of their players celebrating on the Cardinals’ center-court logo in their brand-new gymnasium. The gesture wasn’t taken too kindly.
“It was all on my mind,” Seely-Roberts said. “That was my whole pregame talk.”
Lincoln’s players didn’t forget, either.
“We were so mad,” senior Malachi Seely-Roberts said. “We went and sat in the locker room — for some of us, like 30 minutes. Just sitting there thinking, ‘I don’t want to have that feeling ever again.’”
The Cardinals made sure that feeling didn’t come back. Taking control from the opening tip, fourth-seeded Lincoln led wire-to-wire at home to take down No. 13 Cleveland, 73-50, in the second round of the playoffs and punch a ticket to the Class 6A state tournament next week.
“I’m so happy right now,” senior Moroni Seely-Roberts said. “I’m real proud of our team and how we battled. They beat us earlier and I’m super proud of how we came out early and were in control of this game from the beginning.
“Hats off to Cleveland, they’re a great team, but I’m proud of how we battled.”
The Cardinals raced to a 9-2 lead in the opening four minutes and never looked back. Behind brothers Moroni and Malachi, plus five points from senior Jimmy McCartan, Lincoln’s lead ballooned to 13 points in the first half at 27-14 with 2:01 to go.
Cleveland ended the second quarter on a 7-0 run and trailed 27-21 at the break, but that was as close as the Warriors got.
Lincoln dominated the second half with its size and defense inside the paint behind a lengthy front line consisting of Moroni Seely-Roberts (6-foot-6), Malachi Seely-Roberts (6-foot-8) and Graham Eikenberry (6-foot-10).
The Cardinals stretched their lead to 16 points in the third quarter when senior JahAllah Van’s basket gave them a 44-28 advantage with 1:10 left.
Moroni Seely-Roberts said they watched a lot of film this week, scouting Cleveland’s tendencies that led to Lincoln losing all three meetings last season and settling for a split in league play this season.
“We tried to keep them out of the paint a lot,” said Moroni, who finished with 17 points. “We knew they like to crash the glass hard, and they get a lot of rebounds and get a lot of second chances. And then we just wanted to be physical with them as well.”
That physicality and Lincoln’s full-court pressure eventually wore down the Warriors in the fourth quarter. Eikenberry had two huge blocks in the final period — the last leading to a dunk by Moroni Seely-Roberts for a 55-40 lead with 4:15 left, making the potential trip to the Chiles Center seem more and more real.
“(Eikenberry) is the energy of our team,” Moroni Seely-Roberts said. “He’s always yelling and screaming at us, so for him to get those blocks, especially in the fourth quarter, that was real clutch and stopped their momentum and stopped their run. It kept us going.”
“We could’ve had a (bigger lead) if we made some more baskets that we missed,” Heather Seely-Roberts added. “I was like, we’ve got to make baskets. And then finally, the other part of the press is that it wears teams down, so I think it started to wear them down a little bit. They weren’t getting back quite as quickly, so we were able to score.”
Malachi Seely-Roberts finished with a game-high 22 points, while Eikenberry and Van each had eight points. Lincoln shot 42.6 percent from the field (23 of 54) and saw its defense limit Cleveland to 30.3 percent (17 of 56).
The Warriors’ 50 points were their third-lowest point total of the season and were 13 points fewer than they averaged against Lincoln in their two regular-season meetings.
Senior Jackson Cooper led Cleveland with 15 points, and senior SC Tresvant added 10 points. Senior Ben Lyons chipped in seven.
Lincoln continues its journey with a matchup against No. 5 Gresham in the state quarterfinals Thursday at 3:15 p.m.
Heather Seely-Roberts will make her first trip back to the Chiles Center since 2005, when she guided the Lakeridge girls program to fourth place.
Two seasons ago, she led Yamhill-Carlton to the Class 3A season-culminating championship with her sons, Moroni and Malachi, before they transferred to Lincoln to get a chance at the 6A level.
Now, they get their shot.
“Winning state was obviously a huge deal,” Moroni Seely-Roberts said. “And I’m glad, but 6A is a different beast. We have three more tough games coming up to be able to win a state title, but one game at a time. I think we’ve just got to play Lincoln basketball and we’ll be all right.”
Added Malachi: “It’s good, but we don’t want our highlight to be beating Cleveland in the second round. We want to get to the top. We’re happy with the win, obviously, but we want to get to the next level.”
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Lincoln 73, Cleveland 50
Cleveland – 9 – 12 – 11 – 18 — 50
Lincoln – 13 – 14 – 17 – 29 — 73
Cleveland — Jackson Cooper 15, SC Tresvant 10, Lyons 7, Susak 6, Owens 5, Ja. Pichon 5, Huss 2, Shin, Schroedel, Crouser, Adamski, McClinton, F. Cooper, Ryan, Je. Pichon
Lincoln — Malachi Seely-Roberts 22, Moroni Seely-Roberts 17, Eikenberry 8, Van 8, McCartan 7, Johnson 5, Margolis 4, Bisbee, Wacker, Owen, N. Maria, Heisler, A. Maria, Heald, Overby
Field goals: Cleveland 17 of 56, Lincoln 23 of 54
Rebounds: Cleveland 29, Lincoln 36
