Gsl Girls Have A Rare Bad Day

4A girls

The Greater Spokane League’s reputation as a girls basketball power took a hit Wednesday.

Not only did the GSL go 0-2 in the opening round of the State 4A tournament, its members lost ugly.

Central Valley’s dream of returning to the title game for a second straight year was dashed almost before the Bears woke up. Prairie raced to a 20-1 lead and went on to a 59-49 win.

Ferris shot 27 percent and committed 20 turnovers to fall 49-29 to defending state champion Federal Way.

The GSL hadn’t gone 0-2 on opening day since 1995, when Mead fell to top-ranked Prairie and Shadle Park lost to Kent-Meridian, both by three points. Mead bounced back to place fifth.

“I don’t know, terrible basketball,” CV coach Dale Poffenroth said. “It was like we were petrified, terrified, deer in the headlights. Whatever.”

Ferris coach Art Rojas, whose team was only down five at halftime, said, “We weren’t focused all day today. We weren’t focused the whole trip. We were worried about everything except basketball. That team we played tonight was no better than we were, they just knew how to play here.”

The Bears play ninth-ranked South Kitsap (24-4), which fell to Inglemoor 49-36, at 1:30 today. Ferris plays Bothell at 9:30 tonight.

Prairie 59, Central Valley 49

Courtney Cushing never gave the sixth-ranked Bears (21-5) a chance, scoring 10 of the first 16 points for the seventh-ranked Falcons (21-2).

Meanwhile, the Bears failed to score until Courtney Phinney’s free throw midway through the quarter made it 16-1.

“That’s digging a pretty big hole,” Poffenroth said. “They worked so hard to get here…They’re a pretty good ballclub, but it’s hard to explain. I didn’t expect them to do that.”

Cushing made it look easy, taking feed after feed from Angela Beveridge, who was set up in the high post.

But CV’s scrambling defense had its effect. On their way to forcing 24 turnovers, the Bears closed the gap to 33-26 at the half. Unfortunately, they were on their way to 20 turnovers of their own, many unforced, and they ran out of gas.

The Bears hit a long dry spell after scoring the opening basket of the third quarter and fell behind 49-33 entering the fourth quarter. CV was down 57-40 with less than 3 minutes to go.

Cushing finished with 20 points, eight rebounds and six blocked shots. Beveridge, who played here previously with third-place Mountain View, added 14 points with six assists. The Falcons also shot 58 percent (26-45)

The Bears continued their woeful shooting, making just 16 of 49 shots.

“The newspapers said Prairie was the second-best team here,” Poffenroth said. “Maybe they are. They looked like it today.”

Central Valley 13 13 7 16 -49

Prairie 22 11 16 10 -59

CENTRAL VALLEY - Phinney 3 2-3 8, Renslow 0 0-0 0, Wilson 4 1-3 10, Donaldson 0 0-0 0, Grafos 0 0-0 0, Jackson 2 5-6 10, Ferguson 0 0-0 0, Shoquist 1 0-0 2, Liepman 2 0-0 4, J.Coyle 3 4-4 11, P.Coyle 1 0-0 3, Bragdon 0 1-2 1. Totals 16 13-18 49. PRAIRIE - Beveridge 7 0-0 14, Anderson 0 1-2 1, Molderhauer 0 0-0 0, Nevenner 0 0-0 0, Grimm 6 0-0 12, Oury 1 0-2 2, Wright 0 0-0 0, Pickup 0 0-0 0, Jones 0 0-0 0, Batanian 0 0-0 0, Mollerup 3 4-4 10, Cushing 9 2-2 20. Totals 26 7-10 59. 3-point goals - Wilson, Jackson, J.Coyle, P.Coyle. Total fouls - CV 12, Prairie 13. Fouled out - none.

Federal Way 49, Ferris 29

The Saxons (20-6) saw their press work for a half, before the top-ranked Eagles (26-2) found the range from 3-point land.

Federal Way raced to a 12-4 lead after one quarter, but Ferris cut the deficit to 17-12 at the half despite shooting 6 of 25 from the field and turning the ball over 15 times.

The Eagles had 12 turnovers and made 7 of 27 shots, including 0 of 11 3-pointers.

The second half started with Jodie Kaczor, who made just 1 of 9 shots in the first half, hitting a 3. After a Ferris turnover, Ruth Taylor’s 3 made it 23-12. Kaczor hit another trey 3 minutes later that made it 28-16 Federal Way.

Except for one brief spark, when they reeled off seven quick points when they were down 32-16, the Saxons had no offense.

The only bright spot was freshman Katie Foster, who hit 4 of 5 shots and led the Saxons with nine points.

Federal Way 12 5 18 14 -49

Ferris 4 8 11 6 -29

FEDERAL WAY - Blackner 0 0-0 0, Turney-Loos 1 0-0 2, Kaczor 4 4-5 15, Minkler 0 0-0 0, Zovko 0 0-0 0, Clawson 0 0-0 0, Johnson 0 0-0 0, Rutter 0 0-0 0, Thompson 0 1-2 1, Iserman 4 6-8 14, Taylor 7 0-0 16, Sandberg 0 1-2 1. Totals 16 12-19 49. FERRIS - Lynn 0 0-1 0, Pruett 1 0-1 2, Lytle 1 0-0 2, George 1 2-2 4, Morrisette 1 0-2 2, Kirstein 1 0-0 3, Brazzle 1 1-2 4, Martin 0 0-0 0, Foster 4 1-2 9, McCaffery 2 0-0 4, Benzel 0 0-0 0, Taylor 0 0-0 0. Totals 12 4-10 29.

3-point goals - Kaczor 3, Taylor 2, Kirstein. Total fouls - FW 10, Ferris 18. Fouled out - none.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo