BELLEVUE — Lake Washington traveled to No. 7 Bellevue on Friday and earned its biggest win of the season.

A rousing 49-45 victory over the state runner-up Wolverines puts the Kangaroos in the thick of the KingCo 3A/2A championship race midway through the season.

But Lake Washington (8-3, 5-1) almost squandered a 14-point fourth-quarter lead, turning it over seven times in the final quarter as its lead slipped to two points.

Bellevue's stingy full-court defense and back-to-back three-pointers by Jackson Rezab capped a 15-3 run and pulled the Wolverines (9-2, 4-1) to 47-45 with 23 seconds remaining.

Lake Washington's Matt Staudacher then hit both ends of a 1-and-1 to clinch the Kangs' win. Staudacher had failed to convert free throws in a similar situation in a 71-69 loss to conference-leading Sammamish on Dec. 13. This time, the senior guard was ready for redemption.

"The crowd was just jumping, but when I got fouled I was like, 'Thank God I get another chance,' " said Staudacher, who finished with 14 points. "I stepped to the line, found my rhythm, knocked them down, got the win."

Earlier this week, Kangaroos coach Barry Johnson was placed on a leave of absence and assistant coach Brian Lund was given the interim job. No information was available on Johnson's status or if he would return to coach the Kangs this season.

"They showed a lot of maturity," Lund said of his players. "We don't really know what's going on. We're in the dark, and we're all hoping Coach will be back. But no matter who the coach is, we aren't going to change anything about what we do."

That much was apparent from the beginning, as the Kangs took an 8-0 lead. Bellevue tied the score at 19-19 just before half, but a three by Staudacher gave Lake Washington a 22-19 lead at halftime.

"We're very young and inexperienced, but we're focused on getting better game by game," Bellevue coach Chris O'Connor said. "We had some key mistakes in this one, but we're going to learn something from it."

Darien Nelson-Henry had 17 points and 10 rebounds to lead Lake Washington.