Dragons Know The Way St. George’s Relies On Rebounding, Arena Experience To Claim Opener

Experience is a huge ingredient for success and the St. George’s Dragons had a double dose Wednesday afternoon.

The Dragons beat Waitsburg 54-46 in the first round of the State B basketball tournament because they got pounded on the boards in their district tournament and because a trip to the Spokane Arena is nothing new.

“Experience helped a lot,” St. George’s senior leader Miranda Routh-Corker said after scoring 23 points.

Routh-Corker is the only Dragon with state experience, but her teammates are used to the atmosphere of state because the north Spokane private school is making its seventh trip downtown in the last nine years. Game days are usually school holidays and all the students attend.

Waitsburg, on the other hand, is at state for the first time.

“I didn’t think it was going to bother us, but it did,” Cardinals coach Jerry Baker said. “We played really well in Pullman (for the district tournament at WSU), but this is by far the worse we’ve played.”

The other factor was St. George’s, with no 6-footers, battling the Cardinals, with 6-2 and 6-0 posts, evenly on the boards.

“We didn’t rebound well at district. Sprague-Harrington really put it to us, and these guys are a lot bigger, ” coach Ross Thomas said. “We watched film and saw if we didn’t work harder, we could be embarrassed out there.”

Waitsburg pulled down 40 rebounds, 21 on the offensive end, but the Dragons had 35 rebounds, 14 offensive.

“I thought if we didn’t rebound we’d lose,” Routh-Corker said. “These girls were tall and lanky … so we could block them out.”

So many rebounds were available because the Cardinals made just 22 of 65 shots (34 percent).

“It had to be nerves,” Baker said. “How many little layups did we miss? I don’t want to know.”

Waitsburg let the game get away in the middle of the third quarter. St. George’s had a 10-0 run, with eight points off turnovers, and the Cardinals missed seven shots, four after offensive rebounds.

Routh-Corker started the run by getting inside for a basket then capped it with two outside shots for a 41-25 lead with 57 seconds left in the third quarter.

One of Routh-Corker’s shots was a push-and-a-prayer from the right wing just before the shot clock went off. It was a show of strength that masked how she felt. She was exhausted after missing a month and dropping 15 pounds because of a case of bronchitis.

Waitsburg finally found the range in the fourth quarter, making five straight shots, before calling a timeout when they didn’t have any left. Routh-Corker, the best free-throw shooter in school history, made the two technical foul shots and two more on the ensuing possession to push a three-point lead, 47-44, back up to seven with 41 seconds left.

Now the Dragons and Routh-Corker have the daunting task of trying to stop Manson’s 6-1 point guard/forward/post Katie Davis, who scored 32 points in a 62-32 romp over Cedar Park Christian.

In the opener, Sarah Buehler had 16 points and 17 rebounds as Wahkiakum overcame 25 points by Darrington’s Angie Meece for a 47-43 win. Alyssa Erickson followed with 27 points as Wilbur-Creston, second last year, rolled past Shoreline Christian 76-40.

The Wahkiakum-WC quarterfinal will be at 5 p.m., followed by St. George’s and Manson at 6:30. , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: STATE B ONLINE Track the State B tournaments from the opening tips to the championship games on Spokane.net, an online service of The Spokesman-Review. Point your browser to http://www.spokane.net/stateb