Sunnyside defeats Toutle Lake

In the second half of Sunnyside Christian’s girls State B first-round game against Toutle Lake, there wasn’t really a question whether the Knights would outscore their opposition. The real question was this:

Would Emily Hernandez outscore Toutle Lake?

The Sunnyside Christian junior, generously listed at 5-foot-5, scored a school-record 37 points and hit a State B tournament-record 17 free throws, as the Knights defeated the Ducks 62-46 in the Spokane Arena.

Hernandez broke the previous State B record of 16, set by Creston’s Tammy Tibbles against Darrington in 1983, on the second of two free throws with 16 seconds left. When Hernandez hit the record-tying 16th free throw with 3:34 remaining, she and the Toutle Lake team had each scored 36 points.

Toutle Lake (22-3) opened the game with a man-to-man defense, which is just what Hernandez loves to see.

“I love driving the ball, so when they played man in the beginning of the game I was like, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be fun,’ ” she said. “When I learned what defense they were in, that’s what got me (going) because I knew I would have a pretty good game.”

Hernandez, who averaged 9.8 points per game during the regular season, already had 16 at halftime on 6-of-11 shooting to lead Sunnyside Christian (18-8) to a 32-22 halftime lead. She had plenty of early opportunities to capitalize on the Ducks’ poor shooting and get layups in transition.

But even the layup attempts weren’t coming easily. Hernandez was scoring points by drawing contact and getting to the free-throw line in the second half.

“My dad’s always telling me to drive,” she said. “I realized we had really good refs, and every time I would drive, they would get it. So I just took advantage of it.”

Hernandez really took advantage in the second half, scoring 21 points and hitting 14 of her 17 free-throw attempts. She started the half by scoring its first seven points, including four free throws, in the first two minutes.

It took the Ducks nearly three minutes to respond – at which point they were down by 21 – then sophomore guard Lindsey Scheffler went on a run of her own. Scheffler scored all nine Toutle Lake points in the third quarter and finished with 19 for the game.

“It was really big for us,” Ducks coach Tyler Bigbee said of Scheffler’s performance. “Unfortunately, we didn’t enough (other) kids have big games for us this evening.”

The Toutle Lake game plan wasn’t to have Scheffler carry the team. Jesse Hanna and Kayla Vickaryous, who each average 11 points per game, were supposed to help, but Sunnyside Christian coach Al Smeenk wouldn’t let that happen.

“They’ve got three tremendous, good scorers, and those were the girls we knew we had to key on,” he said, “and that’s how we played defense.”

Vickaryous had a decent game with 14 points, but Hanna was stymied into a 1-for-13 shooting performance and just three points by Sunnyside Christian’s zone defense.

For the Knights, senior Tyssyna Van Wirgerden’s double-double provided more than enough support. Van Wirgerden, who usually leads the team in scoring, chipped in with 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.

Sunnyside Christian will face Almira/Coulee-Hartline in the quarterfinals at 5:30 p.m.