Lakeside Girls Capture First State Plaque

One North Side girls basketball team has brought home a state placing trophy and two others are in the process of attempting the same.

Lakeside High School finished seventh in the State A Tournament in Tacoma by splitting four games.

“We wanted to finish in the top five at state and hated to lose the last game, especially for the seniors,” said Lakeside coach Liza Schultz. “But look how far we’ve come in their four years. Without them, we wouldn’t have been there.”

The 21-5 Eagle girls earned the first plaque ever last week four years after going winless in league.

This week, teams from Mead and Shadle Park are attempting to add to already glittering tournament records.

Between them the pair have won four state AAA championships among seven top-four places. The pair opened tournament play on Wednesday.

They could be playing each other this morning, depending upon the outcome of 22-3 Mead’s game against unbeaten defending state champion Prairie and 22-4 Shadle’s game against 21-3 Kent Meridian.

Lakeside’s losses came to the state’s third- and fourth-place finishers, Ilwaco and Foster. Of the wins, one was 54-50 over Cascade, which had lost just once previously and at one time had been ranked first in state.

“Carrie Waddell made an unbelievable shot and four straight free throws,” Schultz said of the victory. “We had only one free throw miss out of 10 tries in the last three minutes of the game.”

In a 47-34 loss to Ilwaco the Eagles trailed by just four late in the game but missed layups, turned the ball over and were forced to foul.

Against Foster on Saturday, a team which has made 11 straight state appearances, Lakeside trailed by three points but failed on three scoring opportunities late in the game and lost 56-48.

“We played very, very, very good defense, almost perfect all week,” said Schultz. “Offensively, we need to make another step.

“We’ve been defensive minded and have to change our focus. We were passive at state and not taking shots we should have.”

But Waddell is just a sophomore, tournament scoring and rebound leader Brianne Jolley is a freshman, and her sister Lora Jolley, the team’s second-leading scorer during the season, also returns.

The Eagles need to replace three seniors who played a lot of minutes.

“If we fill their shoes, we’ll be back at state, no doubt,” said Schultz.

Riverside’s girls team, which included only two seniors, was eliminated in two straight games.

Getting there, said Coach Chris Wren, was important for the players, who saw a different level of basketball. It was Riverside’s firstever state appearance.

“It was a surprise to me (that we got there), to say the least,” said Wren. “It will cost me some hair on Friday.”

He said he foolishly opened his mouth early in the year and agreed to a haircut if the Rams qualified for state.

No Greater Spokane League North Side boys basketball team qualified for state, with Mead losing out in two straight by a total of five points and Rogers losing in three games, including 70-68 in overtime to Lewis and Clark.