Lamb Helps Cow Coyotes St. John-Endicott Star Scores 29, Leading Eagles Into Semifinals

It was just another day at the office for St. John-Endicott’s Tricia Lamb.

The senior standout tossed in a game-high 29 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to lead the Eagles to a 56-40 triumph over the Kittitas Coyotes in the quarterfinal round of the girls State B basketball tournament Thursday at the Arena.

Lamb, who will play for Washington State University next season, moved into fourth place on the B tournament career scoring list with 290 points. She is 29 points away from the No. 2 spot. Davenport’s Jennifer Stinson (421) tops the list.

“I’ll tell you what,” said Eagles coach Lorin Carlon. “Tricia could play for the Cougars right now. She’s that good.”

You probably couldn’t get any of the Kittitas faithful to dispute that. Lamb had a hand in the first 13 points scored by the Eagles and it appeared that a rout was on when the first-quarter buzzer sounded with the scoreboard reading 18-2 in favor of St. John-Endicott.

“As a team we always seem to score a lot in the first quarter,” said Lamb. “I don’t really think about trying to score a lot early … it just happens that way sometimes.”

The rout never materialized.

Kittitas put 20 points on the board in the second period, and a 10-0 run over the last 4 minutes pulled the Coyotes to within three points, 25-22, at the half.

Carlon wasn’t too concerned.

“We’ve played too many games like that this year,” he said. “Early in the season it would have bothered us, but they’re used to it now. Sometimes it’s better to tell the girls what not to do out there, rather than what to do.”

St. John-Endicott stretched its lead to eight points midway through the third period, but an 8-2 spurt had the Coyotes back within two at 34-32. It was the closest Kittitas had been since the 5:10 mark of the first quarter.

The game was in doubt until Lamb and freshman Kim Colyar hit both ends of a one-and-one over a 35-second span - Lamb doing it twice - to put the Eagles up 44-34 with 6:09 remaining.

In the second quarterfinal game, the Ritzville Broncos jumped out to a big lead, struggled through the second and third periods, and then dominated the final quarter en route to a 54-43 victory over the Rainier Mountaineers.

Megan Wellsandt hit 8 of 11 shots for a team-high 16 points to send the Broncos into the semifinal round against St. John-Endicott.

SJE is 2-0 against the Broncos this season, winning the first game 48-41 and the second game 49-48.

“We flat out got lucky against them,” said Carlon. “Ritzville is a very good team. They come to our summer camp, so we know each other very well. It should be a great basketball game.”