By David Pan/Lynnwood Today editor

On a night when Lynnwood scored its season low in points, the Royals’ defense shined brightly.

Lynnwood held Edmonds-Woodway to only 3 points in the second quarter and then shut out the Warriors in the third period en route to a 43-26 victory in a 4A District 1 semifinal tournament game Friday night at Mountlake Terrace High School.

The Royals clinched a berth in the regional tournament and advanced to the district championship game against Arlington at 6 p.m., Friday, Feb. 21 at Glacier Peak High School.

“It’s awesome,” Lynnwood’s Mikayla Pivec said. “It’s one step closer to the Tacoma Dome.”

The Royals (21-1) struggled early on against the Warriors (14-8), who led 11-4 at one point in the first quarter. Lynnwood rallied and went into the second quarter trailing 12-10.

“It wasn’t our best start, but our defense kept us in it,” said Pivec, who scored a game-high 15 points.

“Mikayla was outstanding,” said Lynnwood coach Everett Edwards. “She really carried us in that first quarter. … We really needed her to make something happen. Her aggressiveness on offense and attacking the basket really was the difference maker in keeping us in it in the first quarter.”

Edwards wasn’t quite sure why the rest of Royals weren’t making their shots. Friday night’s game was only the second time this season that Lynnwood trailed after the first quarter.

“We didn’t play very well at the start of the game,” Edwards said. “Honestly, I felt like we were a little bit tight. … We looked at little tentative shooting the 3. It seemed like we weren’t very confident shooting the ball. That’s a little bit of a surprise. We’ve been putting in a little work in that.”

Edwards also credited the Edmonds-Woodway defense, which he said took the Royals out of some of things that they wanted to do on offense.

The Warriors also were making their shots in the first quarter.

“I think it kind of messed with our confidence a bit,” Edwards said.

But whatever doubts soon dissipated in the second quarter as Lynnwood’s defense clamped down on the Warriors, who hit a 3-pointer with less than 10 seconds left in the period.

Lynnwood took a 27-15 lead into halftime and extended it to 37-15 at the end of the third quarter.

“After the first quarter, we buckled down and played good defense,” Edwards said. “We struggled defensively at the start.”

Edmonds-Woodway coach Rebekah Wells was pleased with her team’s performance on defense.

“In the second and third quarters, we weren’t able to get our shots to fall,” she said. “They are a great team. They have all the fundamentals. They do an exceptional job. We have to get our shots to fall to be able to keep up with them.”