Inspired LC downs University
The Lewis and Clark Tigers were hurting.
No, the girls basketball team wasn’t mulling over their recent loss to University, which earned the Titans the Greater Spokane League regular-season title.
They were hurting because one of their own was hurting: junior post Hanna Rothstrom.
Three days ago she learned her grandfather had died in Tacoma, and the funeral would be today. Basketball, even playoff basketball, went to the backburner.
“When she came back to practice, we told her we were behind her 100 percent,” team captain Briann January said. “We told her if she needed anyone to talk to, we were all there for her.”
Instead, Rothstrom spent time the past few days looking through scrapbooks of her grandfather’s sporting exploits. Nothing spectacular, she said, just memories of his games.
Inspired, she decided to play. And Friday night she did something spectacular.
She scored 20 points – a career high “unless,” she said, “you count a couple of JV games” – and lifted the Tigers to a 63-52 District 8 title win over the No. 1-ranked Titans.
University had defeated LC 73-58 just eight days ago in a game where the Tigers (21-1) played slow, according to January.
Not so Friday.
“I was really playing loose,” the 6-foot Rothstrom said, “we all were. We didn’t think about mistakes; we just wanted to make plays.”
“Last Thursday, we didn’t come to play, for whatever the reason,” LC coach Jim Redmon said. “Tonight we did. I’m proud we met the challenge because we could have folded and we didn’t.”
Far from it. The Tigers were the aggressors from the beginning, and only the hot shooting of GSL scoring champion Angie Bjorklund, who finished with a game-high 24 points, kept the Titans (21-1) in it early.
Bjorklund hit all four of her first-quarter shots and U-Hi led 15-14. But the seeds of LC’s win were being sown, with the Tigers grabbing seven offensive rebounds.
It was the rebounding – and January’s shooting – that keyed a 9-0 run to start the second. From there, the Titans became a jump-shooting team – they scored only four times within 5 feet of the basket the rest of the game – and saw LC’s lead balloon to as much as 16 (45-29) with less than four minutes left in the third.
The lead was built behind Rothstrom scoring inside, January’s shooting outside (she finished with 16 points) and Heather Bowman’s work on the offensive glass (12 boards total, half offensive, along with 15 points). The team’s 14 offensive boards accounted for 18 second-chance points.
“The only thing I was disappointed in was our rebounding effort,” U-Hi coach Mark Stinson said. “I really can’t put a finger on what happened. Part of it was we got every bounce our way the other night; tonight the bounces seemed to go their way.”
When the Titans finally got some shots to fall late – they shot 38 percent for the game after hitting 63 percent the night before – they pulled within 53-50 with 3:49 left. But five of its next six possessions ended in misses, the other a turnover, and Rothstrom and January made enough free throws to put the game away.
Gonzaga Prep 56, Mt. Spokane 48
The Pups clinched the GSL third seed to regionals behind the shooting of Sarah Jennings and Corrina O’Brien and the clutch hoops of sophomore Tara Cronin.
“I’m most pleased our shooters were able to come back,” said Prep coach Mike Arte, referring to O’Brien and Jennings. “They shot their way back from a poor shooting night.”
On Thursday night, O’Brien, who averages 10 points a game, scored six, hitting just two shots. But that was two more shots than Jennings, who went scoreless in the loss to LC.
They made up for it against the Wildcats (17-6). Jennings hit four 3-pointers and finished with 16 points. O’Brien added 12.
But it was Cronin who stole the show, scoring 19 points, just two off her career high, which came in the regular-season meeting with Mt. Spokane. The Wildcats had rallied behind the play of Katelan Redmon, who finished with a team-high 16, and Charlee Jackson, who scored 10.
LC and U-Hi will host Big Nine foes Tuesday at Central Valley High, while Prep and Mt. Spokane will travel to undetermined sites.