NEA girls earn three trophies

YAKIMA – Lakeside finally ran out of gas Saturday after 11 postseason games in 21 days. Granger defeated the Eagles of Nine Mile Falls 46-28 in the game for third and sixth places at the State 1A girls basketball tournament at the SunDome.

Lakeside (17-13) won a trophy for the sixth consecutive time at state. The Eagles’ Northeast A League also took home fourth (Colfax) and fifth (Freeman) places.

Aleesha Denney led Lakeside with eight points and 15 rebounds.

The Eagles entered state as something of an afterthought after finishing behind Colfax and Freeman at regional. But Freeman lost on Wednesday and Colfax lost on Thursday while Lakeside won its first two.

Playing four days in a row for the first time all season, the Eagles legs seem to falter on Saturday. That brought their offense – workmanlike in the best of time and reliant on defensive pressure to generate opportunities – to a standstill.

Lakeside hit just 4 of 27 shots in the second half and finished 10 of 50 from the floor.

“Our kids played hard, but we got tired,” Lakeside coach Jeff Pietz said. “They hit some shots in the first half that we didn’t expect. We couldn’t recover.”

Colfax 65, Nooksack Valley 49: The Bulldogs roared to a 14-0 lead in the first period and took care of the Pioneers in the game for fourth and seventh places.

The win caps a 23-5 season for the Bulldogs which included a league co-championship, a district crown and a regional title. It also adds to a remarkable success at state. Since 2002, the Bulldogs have won five titles and been fourth twice. It was their 10th straight 1A trophy.

That streak will come to an end next year. The Bulldogs will drop to Class 2B for at least the next two years.

Nooksack clawed back after the opening quarter to make it a contest and again give Colfax coach Corey Baerlocher pause.

“We haven’t ever had lulls like this he said,” Baerlocher said. “The emotions of this week … for these seniors have taken a toll.

“No matter what we tried to tell the players, they felt like they let our community down. Today was anti-climactic from where they wanted to be.”

Colfax’s Kayla Johnson, a sophomore who has toiled in the shadow of a senior-dominated team, had 18 points and five rebounds. She finished the tournament averaging just more than 17 points a game.

Freeman 49, Zillah 42: Freeman recovered from what has become a traditional midgame lapse to take home the fifth-place trophy.

The win gave the Scotties (26-4) a third state tournament trophy in four trips to state.

“We seem to do that most nights,” Scotties coach Matt Gregg said of the lull. “We told them at halftime, when we were ahead, that we couldn’t afford to do that with Zillah, but …”

Carly Heinen scored eight points and grabbed eight rebounds in the first half for the Scotties as they built a six-point lead by controlling the boards 25-15.

Freeman blew a 10-point third-period lead but re-asserted itself to hold off the scrappy Leopards.

Joelle Patterson had two big 3-pointers for Zillah in a 14-4 run over the final 5 minutes of the third period that sent the game into the final period tied at 34.

Heinen hit a field goal and two free throws to get Freeman untracked in the fourth period. The Scotties used a 7-1 run – Ashley Carrell had a 3-pointer and another bucket in the surge – to take a 45-37 lead with 1:19 remaining.

Heinen led Freeman with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Carrell had 10.

Lynden Christian 46, Columbia (Burbank) 35: The Lyncs downed the Coyotes to win the championship.

Boys

Charles Wright 54, River View 48: Gerald Hill scored all 17 of his points in the second half as the Terriers (22-6) defeated the Panthers (23-4) for their first state title.