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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Lamb Leaves Tournament On High Note

Jeff Finke Correspondent

The Eagle has landed … in the record books.

Tricia Lamb became the second-leading career scorer in girls State B tournament history Saturday and the defending state champion St. John-Endicott Eagles went on to defeat the Pateros Nannies 62-49 to capture the third-place trophy.

Lamb closed out her career with 325 tournament points. She moved into the No. 2 spot ahead of Creston’s Tammy Tibbles (318) and Clallam Bay’s Monica Van Riper (317). Davenport’s Jennifer Stinson tops the list with 421 points.

“It’s a great accomplishment I guess,” said Lamb. “Honestly, we did a lot better as a team than I expected. Our freshmen really helped take some of the pressure off of me tonight.”

Lamb’s final game for the Eagles (24-6) looked like this: 16 points on 7-of-14 shooting, 14 rebounds, 10 assists and three steals.

“Tricia played her usual brilliant game for us,” said Eagles coach Lorin Carlon. “She’s been the best player in the state for the past two years. What more can you say?”

SJE senior Brooke Bafus also played well, scoring 13 points and hitting all three of her 3-point shots.

“It feels great coming back and placing this year after winning state last season,” Bafus said. “Our freshmen really stepped up big. It was nice to get balanced scoring for a change, instead of leaving it all up to Tricia.”

The future remains bright for the Eagles.

“This is only the second time all season where we had three players score in double figures,” said Carlon. “We knew we were only going as far as the freshmen would take us, so third place is pretty good.”

Pateros, which placed sixth, got 18 points from Marcy Stennes and 14 points from Annie Neuneker.

In the battle for the fifth-place trophy, Tekoa-Oakesdale (25-4) received 17 points from Miranda Brown and 16 points and six assists from Sally Palmer in a 57-45 victory over Watson Groen Christian (22-6).

Palmer and Sarah Hansen played their last games for the Nighthawks.

“I wish we could have been playing for the championship,” said Hansen. “But I’m still really proud because we played together and stuck together as a team.”

The Crusaders’ eighth-place finish was a first. Watson Groen had made 10 previous trips to the tournament and had never left with a trophy.

Clallum Bay (23-3) came through with the best finish for a Tri-District school in the history of the tourney.

Casey Soeneke and Deborah Sangel combined for 41 points and 20 rebounds to lead the Bruins to a 56-42 win over Kittitas (22-6) and the fourth-place trophy.

The Coyotes were led by the 16 points of Alyssum Myrick.