Mead Plays Big; CV Falls Back

4A girls

Mead faced size and came up big; Central Valley faced speed and got run over.

There was quite a contrast Wednesday as those Greater Spokane League teams opened with mixed results at the girls State 4A basketball tournament at the Tacoma Dome.

Mead’s ninth-ranked Panthers started the first round with a 50-46 over No. 10 Rogers-Puyallup, a team that goes 6-foot-2, 6-0 and 6-0 across the front line.

No. 4 CV closed the day in a track meet and was burned by lightly-regarded Tahoma, 53-39.

“Pretty embarrassing, isn’t it,” CV coach Dale Poffenroth said. “That was the worst game we played all year, probably.”

Mead started fast with freshman Leah Gonnella, in her first start, scoring the game’s first seven points on her way to a career-high 13.

Ever calm, Gonnella said, “I just go in like it’s another game and go as hard as I can.”

She found out she was starting at 6 a.m. when the Panthers met for breakfast and a walk around the block to wake up. Usual starter Becky Slater has a fever that limited her to 8 minutes.

For their efforts, the Panthers face the defending champion, second-ranked Prairie (21-2), at 3:30 this afternoon. Prairie rallied past Bellarmine 47-44.

Central Valley will meet No. 1 Roosevelt (25-3), a 63-62 overtime loser to No. 3 South Kitsap, in the 1:30 loser-out game.

Mead 50, Rogers-Puyallup 46

The Panthers (22-4) weren’t great down the stretch, but they were good, hitting 10 of 18 free throws in the final 2 minutes to turn back the Rams (22-5).

It didn’t appear Mead would need those kind of heroics after racing to a 15-1 lead that became 19-5 after one quarter. But Mead shot just 1 of 11 in the second quarter and 1 of 12 in the third to let the Rams back in the game.

“I never got too panicked,” junior guard Courtney Ferguson said. “We’ve had that kind of game before, but we got through it.”

Ferguson hit a pair of 3s in the first quarter and was a clutch player from the line, hitting 8 of 10 on her way to a game-high 16 points.

Her offense, usually complementary to GSL scoring leader Morgan Bennett, was crucial because Bennett missed 12 minutes because of foul trouble.

“My teammates stepped up. I always knew they had it in them,” said Bennett, who had all 13 of her points in the second half. “Just because you don’t have an inside force doesn’t mean you can’t beat them.”

Errin Smith, also in foul trouble, had eight rebounds, as did Gonnella to give the Panthers a 35-30 edge on the boards against the bigger Rams.

It helped that Rogers went 0 for 14 on 3-pointers. Michelle Betschart, the co-MVP of the South Puget Sound League-South, led Rogers with 14 points but shot 5 of 21, including 0 for 11 from 3-point range.

Rogers 5 13 10 18 - 46

Mead 19 3 7 21 - 50

Rogers (22-5) - Wells 2 0-1 4, Farias 0 0-0 0, Journey 3 0-0 8, Steck 4 1-2 9, Betschart 5 4-6 14, Macadangdang 1 2-2 4, Johnson 3 1-2 7, O’Malley 0 0-0 0, Fix 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 8-13 46.

Mead (22-4) - Smith 1 1-2 3, Ferguson 3 8-10 16, Bennett 3 7-12 13, Leaf 0 0-0 0, L. Gonnella 4 4-9 13, Slater 1 0-0 2, G. Gonnella 0 0-0 0, Shea 0 0-0 0, Bailey 1 1-2 3. Totals 13 21-35 50.

3-point goals - Ferguson 2, L. Gonnella. Total fouls - Rogers 22, Mead 14. Fouled out - Johnson, Wells, Journey, Bennett. Technicals - None.

Tahoma 53, CV 39

Maybe there’s something in the Valley water, but several hours after the boys shot a tick under 20 percent, the girls shot 27.5 in the battle of Bears.

Tahoma’s plan was to race up court and fire up shots, hopefully 80 a game, including 40 3-pointers.

In the first quarter alone, Tahoma (18-9) burped up 20 shots and scrapped its way to nine fouls, setting a frenzied pace that rattled CV (22-4). Though it was 24-24 at halftime, CV had 14 turnovers, shot 36 percent and had the beginning of foul trouble.

“That’s why we didn’t press,” Poffenroth said about the frantic play. “We tried to walk it up the court, set up the offense. I don’t know why we didn’t do that. We had all day to think about it.”

Still, CV was ahead 28-26 2 minutes into the third quarter. Then Tahoma went on a 13-0 run, fueled by 5-4 guard Michelle Demetruk with nine of her 22 points, six missed CV shots and four CV turnovers.

Marissa Liepman had 16 points and 11 rebounds, but the Bears hit just 14 of 51 shots, including 3 of 18 3s and 8 of 17 free throws.

Tahoma 14 10 19 10 -53

Central Valley 17 7 5 10 -39

Tahoma (18-9) - Reichert 0 0-0 0, Demetruk 8 5-7 22, Jonasson 1 0-0 2, Stefano 0 0-0 0, Glockner 2 0-0 4, Bennion 5 6-9 17, Burgess 1 2-2 4, Mazen 2 0-0 4, Petite 0 0-0 0, Pilgrim 0 0-0 0, Hale 0 0-0 0, Grant 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 13-18 53. Central Valley (22-4) - Phinney 1 3-7 5, Wilson 2 0-0 4, Ferguson 2 0-0 6, Bragdon 2 1-2 5, Liepman 6 4-8 16, Coyle 1 0-0 3, Wagner 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 8-17 39.

3-point goals - Demetruk, Bennion, Ferguson 2, Coyle. Total fouls - Tahoma 20, CV 19. Fouled out - Mazen. Technical fouls - none.