Ferris Advances; CV Out Saxons Will Play For 5th Place Against Sehome

Ferris and Central Valley accomplished the same goal with different results.

Both teams went into their Friday games at the State 4A girls basketball team planning to shut down their opponent’s star.

The Saxons held Jessica Malone to one 3-pointer and her Columbia River teammates didn’t pick up the slack as Ferris rolled to a 46-27 victory.

“We put her on lock-down,” said Ferris 5-foot-9 senior Karie Pruett, who did the bulk of the work on 5-11 Malone, who averaged 15.7 points. “Watching their other games, when she gets going, that’s when the team gets going.”

The Bears held 6-3 Sarah Onion to five free throws, but Onion’s Sehome teammates came through as the Mariners grabbed a 54-49 win.

“I was very impressed,” CV senior Rikki Jackson said. “Our team was trying to stop Onion, she’s bigger than any kid we got. They throw it in to her and we drop and they throw it back out. Every single girl on their team could shoot. When they kicked it back out, we weren’t fast enough to get back out. They just shot better than we did.”

That pits the Saxons against Sehome in the game for fifth and eighth places in the Kingdome at 1 p.m. The game time has been changed so it won’t conflict with the Ferris boys’ 11 a.m. game for fifth place.

Sehome 54, Central Valley 49

The Bears (22-6) limited Onion to four shots, but the Mariners (24-4) made 6 of 14 3-pointers and scored the final five points.

Stacey Miller scored 22 points and Mandy Schutt added 12, hitting four 3s.

After Marisa Liepman’s free throws for CV tied the game at 49 with 1:54 to play, the Mariners hit 3 of 6 free throws to lead by three points with 27 seconds left. The Bears couldn’t get a shot to drop, a problem that wasn’t limited to the final seconds.

“Four shots off the front iron, two missed layins,” CV coach Dale Poffenroth said. “Those (late shots) were wide-open 3s, they just didn’t go. They were by four different players. If you get any one of those, then we have the lead and everything changes.”

The Bears caused 20 turnovers with their defensive pressure. The problem was they couldn’t stop Sehome’s half-court game, and the Mariners had a huge 41-23 advantage on the boards.

Jackson hit 5 of 6 shots for 12 points in the first half, and the Bears opened an eight-point lead that dwindled to three.

After the Mariners tied the game to open the third quarter, the lead changed hands six times before CV went back on top entering the fourth quarter. “After being down 20-1 in the first game (Wednesday) … we played hard from then on out,” Jackson said. “We gave it everything we’ve got. We don’t have anything to be ashamed of.”

Sehome 14 14 12 15 - 54

Central Valley 16 14 12 7 - 49

SEHOME - Oberleitner 0 0-0 0, Kauffman 0 0-0 0, Jensen 2 0-2 4, Miller 7 7-10 22, Beaumont 5 0-0 11, Schuett 4 0-0 12, Onion 0 5-6 5. Totals 18 12-18 54.

CENTRAL VALLEY - Phinney 3 0-0 6, Wilson 1 0-0 2, Grafos 1 0-0 2, Jackson 6 0-0 12, Shoquist 0 0-0 0, Liepman 3 3-5 9, Coyle 6 2-2 16. Totals 20 5-7 54. 3-point goals - Miller, Beaumont, Schuett 4, Jackson 2, Coyle 2. Total fouls - Sehome 7, CV 11. Fouled out - Liepman. Technical foul - Liepman.

Ferris 46, Columbia River 27

The Saxons (22-6) were a little slow getting started, but they destroyed the Chieftains (16-11) in the second half.

Columbia River scored the first basket of the third quarter to take a 19-18 lead but the Chieftains didn’t score for almost 8 minutes as the Saxons rolled 14 straight points to lead 32-19 seconds into the fourth quarter.

“I told the girls what we had to focus on was running,” Ferris coach Art Rojas said. “They’re a good, quality team but they’re not very deep. We could wear them out. In the second half they got a few good looks, everybody does, but their legs were gone.”

Malone made 1 of 11 shots, a 3 when Pruett was on the bench. Her teammates weren’t much better, fumbling a number of her passes away and hitting 11 of 44 shots for 22 percent as a team.

Jaimee Staggs, who averages less than two points, scored six as Columbia River rolled to a 10-3 lead, but Christy Martin took an aggressive role in getting the Saxons’ offense going. Six straight points got Ferris back in the game and Pruett’s drive put the Saxons up 18-17 at halftime.

“I just know to take pressure off Karie and Amy (George), I’m going to have to take some shots,” Martin said. “In turn, that’s going to open up some people.”

The Saxons were balanced, led by Janelle Morrisette’s 10. Columbia River didn’t have anyone with more than seven.

”(Malone’s) an excellent player,” Rojas said. “We play a trapping zone but we didn’t trap. We put Pruett on her and helped out. Karie’s an excellent defender. She had to sacrifice a lot of scoring.”

Columbia River 10 7 2 8 -27

Ferris 5 13 12 16 - 46

COLUMBIA RIVER - Price 1 0-0 2, Crumpacker 0 0-0 0, Christiansen 1 1-2 3, Ponciano 0 0-0 0, Staggs 3 0-0 6, Tommaney 1 0-0 2, Malone 1 0-0 3, Cooper 2 0-0 4, Vakili 0 0-0 0, Hermens 0 0-0 0, Johnson 3 0-0 6. Totals 12 1-2 27.

FERRIS - Lynn 0 0-0 0, Pruett 3 0-0 8, Lytle 1 0-0 2, George 2 1-4 5, Morrisette 3 4-4 10, Kirstein 0 0-0 0, Brazzle 0 0-0 0, Martin 3 0-0 7, Foster 0 1-2 1, McCaffery 3 2-2 9, Benzel 2 0-0 4, Taylor 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 8-14 46.

3-point goals - Malone, Johnson, Pruett 2, Martin, McCaffery. Total fouls - CR 15, Ferris 8. Fouled out - none.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo