Mt. Spokane tops Edmonds-Woodway for fourth place

TACOMA – It didn’t much matter what number was on the trophy Saturday morning for the Mt. Spokane girls basketball team.

The most important thing was it was a trophy – and it came in the school’s first trip to state.

Mt. Spokane jumped out early against Edmonds-Woodway and never relinquished the lead, cruising to a 58-42 victory in the State 3A tournament game deciding fourth and sixth places at the Tacoma Dome.

It all came together under first-year coach David Pratt.

The Wildcats (16-11) played as if they had been to state before. In their opener against undefeated Bellevue, they threatened all the way to the end.

“We played Bellevue tough on Day 1,” Pratt said. “That gave us confidence and that team’s dynamite. We felt like we did the right things and our kids went into the locker room after that game … you need some moral victories although as a coach you don’t want them. They said ‘hey we can do this’. We said ‘let’s go get fourth’. I kept telling the seniors all year that this is your time and let’s go put a trophy in the trophy case for the first time. And your name will be etched in history.”

Junior point guard Jaidyn Lyman led with 21 points and three assists. Freshman Aspyn Adams came off the bench to make four 3-pointers, finishing with 13 points, and senior Jordan Smith had 10 points and five rebounds. Sophomore Miahna Waters had 15 rebounds.

Adams played with considerable poise, making 4 of 6 3-point attempts. Mt. Spokane finished 12 of 20 behind the 3-point line.

“There were no nerves, they just went out and played,” Pratt said. “When you have kids who can just go out and play, what a special group.”

Pratt said the 2015-16 team set the bar high.

“The expectation will be to come back,” Pratt said. “We’re going to go out and work our tails off so we can come back.”

Lyman was pleased that the Wildcats bounced back after the first-day loss.

“We knew we were good, we knew we could get here,” Lyman said. “We know that we belonged here and we knew we could do what we did.”