Prairie edges University
TACOMA – Too big, too strong, too much.
The Prairie Falcons proved to be all those things Friday night and, as a result, overpowered the University Titans 59-56 in the semifinals of the State 4A girls basketball championships at the Tacoma Dome.
“The size, the size, the size,” U-Hi coach Mark Stinson said, eyes red-rimmed after his postgame talk. “Which play do you want me to use as an example? The backdoor lob for the layups? The repeated post-ups? The high-low passes?”
The Falcons (26-2) used them all, as their senior frontline of 6-foot-2 Merritt Cameron (12 points, seven rebounds) and twin wide-bodies 6-foot Amy Donovan (eight and six) and 6-1 University of Idaho signee Katie Madison (16 and 10) proved too much for U-Hi.
It didn’t help that guards Jamey Gelhar (4 of 6 from behind the arc as part of 14 points) and Ashley Corral (15 points, including four consecutive lead-stretching free throws in the final 20 seconds) were also connecting.
“With Prairie, you pick your poison,” Stinson said. “We tried to take away their inside game, and they killed us from the outside. We adjusted and tried to take away the outside, and they killed us inside.
“To beat Prairie, you have to have a little luck … and maybe a cold wind sweeping through the arena.”
There was no breeze in the Tacoma Dome, and precious little luck for the Titans, 24-4 and headed to the third-place game (today at 3:30 p.m.) for the second consecutive year.
One play really illustrated the latter, and it came with 28 seconds left. U-Hi trailed 55-51 and the ball was in Angie Bjorklund’s hands.
The junior All-American, who finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds despite the constant harassment of the 5-6 Gelhar, shook free and fired a 3. It scooped out, Corral grabbed the rebound, was fouled and iced it.
The Falcons cooled off Bjorklund with a man defense, spearheaded by Gelhar and completed by the big kids underneath.
“I’m proud of the job Jamey did on Angie,” said Prairie coach Al Aldridge, who is taking the Falcons to their sixth championship game since 1998. “She did a really good job. Someone might say, she got (19) but Angie can get 40 by herself if you don’t stay close to her.”
“One player can’t win a game all by herself,” said Corral, a sophomore point guard whose turnover late in last year’s second-round game with Lewis and Clark clinched Prairie’s defeat. “Angie can’t do it all herself as great as she is.”
She didn’t have to, though, because Kara Crisp had her second consecutive five 3-pointer game. The senior kept stepping up and hitting shots that kept the Titans close.
“She’s been knocking down shots like that all year,” Stinson said. “Those were just cold-blooded, big-as-they-get 3s.”
Only Erickson joined Bjorklund and Crisp in double figures, and all but one of her 11 points came in the opening half.
By the second half, Prairie’s size had worn down Erickson, Bjorklund and Dara Zack.