Pullman, Lakeside finish well

YAKIMA – It was a confusing assertion to make, especially taken from a numerical standpoint.

There weren’t many people in the SunDome more qualified than Pullman senior Kelli Davis to contrast a third- and second-place finish.

So is third really better?

“I think so,” said Davis, whose Greyhounds upset East Valley (Yakima) to earn a third-place trophy at the State 2A girls basketball tournament Saturday after Davis and Pullman finished second in 2003 and ‘04. “You go out on a win. I mean, I’ve lost the championship twice, and I feel much better about this win than I do the losses and second.”

Pullman wasn’t the only Great Northern League team to end well, as Lakeside blew out La Center 48-25 to earn fifth place.

Pullman 46, EV (Yakima) 41: Maybe it was the hangover from the Red Devils’ first loss off the year, a semifinal heart-breaker.

More likely, it was the way the Greyhounds came out and asserted themselves on offense for the first time at the tourney.

“We were so relaxed,” Davis said. “We were joking around, listening to music, dancing around. It was probably the most relaxed we’d been all year.”

Whatever the reason, shots fell for Pullman (21-5) the way they hadn’t previously, to the tune of 50 percent from the field.

A balanced effort – seven Greyhounds had at least four points and none was in double figures – started with a 30-point Pullman first half.

That’s after a 24-point game against King’s in the semis.

“We played like we can,” said Greyhounds head coach Mike Davis, Kelli’s dad. “We’ve been playing our game defensively for four days, but that’s the first time we’ve played our game offensively as well.”

That offense included nine points from 6-foot-3 center Jamie Thornton, who played, according to Davis, “her best game against tough competition.”

Thornton was 4 of 5 from the field and only turned it over twice against constant double- and triple-teams.

It also came from the smallest player on the team, 5-2 sophomore Cory Druffel, who had a four-point play to end the first quarter, then converted a fast-break layin to end the third and end a six-point run by EV (25-2).

Lakeside 48, La Center 25: At halftime, it appeared the Eagles (20-7) were letting the Wildcats (19-8) hang around, leading 20-10.

Then Kelsey Stillar got hot in the third, and it was all over.

Stillar had 13 of Lakeside’s 23 third-quarter points and that allowed the Eagles to pull their three seniors off the court, one by one, in the closing seconds.

“We came to play – the seniors showed up,” Lakeside head coach Lora Cummings said. “You start to get the meaning of ‘this is the end,’ and you want everyone to play and you want a celebration in the last 3 minutes rather than neck and neck.”

That was mostly because of the shooting of Stillar, one of the seniors, who hit three third-quarter 3-pointers and a couple of floaters in the lane to make up for a difficult shooting tournament.

“It was a good end, because this tournament hasn’t been the best for me,” Stillar said. “We were just moving the ball around, and that was the quarter we hit a lot of outside shots.”