Fifth-Place Pullman Looks To Promising Future

2A girls consolation

Don’t put away those basketballs. Pullman would like to keep playing.

The team that didn’t belong - the worst team in the field, according to the Tacoma newspaper - completed its season Saturday with a fifth-place trophy at the girls State 2A tournament.

Pullman (15-14) defeated Goldendale 57-51 to end the year at better than .500 after finishing the regular season 8-12.

“I’m going to enjoy every minute of this,” Greyhounds coach Jack Brossman said before boarding the charter bus outside the Tacoma Dome. “We’ve improved a great deal.”

Pullman convinced everyone that it rated among the 16 teams, and established itself as a leading contender for 1999. The Greyhounds have the potential to return 80 percent of their scoring, including Saturday’s leaders, sophomore guard Christa Brossman and freshman post Ali Johnston.

“A lot of teams are going to lose their seniors,” said Johnston, who hit 6 of 9 field goals and blocked three shots. “We’re going to have a great team. We might dominate a lot.”

Pullman took the lead for good, at 25-23, when Johnston blocked a shot, raced to the other end and hit a short basket with 1:35 left in the first half.

“It was nice to see Ali step up,” Jack Brossman said. “I’d rather see (Christa) score 18, and others score 12 and 10, rather than get all the points from one person. That’s why we’ve been up and down.”

Christa Brossman had an off-shooting game, hitting 7 of 22 from the floor, but finished No. 2 in tourney scoring with 94 and was named first-team all-tournament. She had a three-point lead over Goldendale 6-1 senior Amber Pantages after three days, but Pantages scored 26 against the Greyhounds to finish with 99. Pantages’ last five points came in the final 40 seconds, after Jack Brossman had pulled his starters.

The Timberwolves (18-9) entered Saturday as the tourney’s top-shooting team, at 56 percent, but Pullman held them to 35 percent. Goldendale, however, hit 8 of 11 free throws to finish the tourney 41 of 54 (76 percent).

Brossman made 18 of 21 free throws in four days.

Johnston, who moved to Pullman from Minnesota one year ago, had 13 rebounds for a four-day total of 34. She averaged nearly four blocked shots per game.

“We were pumped up,” Johnston said. “When we get together as a team, everybody does awesome.” Wendy Paulson, a rare senior on Pullman’s roster, hit 4 of 5 field goals, including two 3-pointers.

Goldendale, last year’s State A runner-up, took home the eighth-place trophy.

Pullman 57, Goldendale 51

Pullman 12 15 14 16 - 57

Goldendale 14 9 10 18 - 51

PULLMAN - Brossman 18, Umbreit 4, Mirkovich 0, Keck 0, Pedersen 6, Paulson 10, Rydbom 3, Couch 0, Neil 2, Curry 0, Johnston 14, Pollastro 0.

GOLDENDALE - McConkey 10, Weiss 5, Barrett 0, Guenther 4, Conroy 2, Niles 0, Amidon 4, Pantages 26.

Elma 80, Woodland 43

Elma (25-2) got 24 points from Jamie Craighead and earned a victory over Woodland (22-5) in the game for fourth and seventh places.

Woodland 16 9 10 8 - 43

Elma 13 29 22 16 - 80

WOODLAND - Bauman 14, Lute 7, Ferris 4, Vander Stoep 12, Smith, Drake, Wakefield, Petty 5, Huffman 1.

ELMA - Seaberg 5, Craighead 24, Sutten 13, Smith 3, Kartikova 19, Colard 9, Burbidge 2, Matthews 3, Rudy 2.

Cascade 58, E. Valley (Yakima) 56

Samantha Willet’s layup with 30 seconds to go followed by a free throw by Shannon O’Neill with 2 seconds left gave the Kodiaks (20-7) the win and the third-place trophy. The Red Devils (18-11) finished sixth.

E. Valley 14 12 14 16 - 56

Cascade 12 18 14 14 - 58

EAST VALLEY - Hilliard 5, Handley, Springer 14, Carmody 8, Barkl 9, Snyder 10, Olson 8, Sevigny 2.

CASCADE - Franza 10, O’Neill 14, Crowston 11, Bradshaw 4, Burgess 7, Morrison 3, Davies 4, Willet 4, Marson 1.

, DataTimes