East Valley girls fall to WV-Yakima

One play epitomized East Valley’s girls Eastern 3A Regional basketball playoff game with West Valley-Yakima Thursday night.

The Knights, holding onto a two-point lead on their home court, brought the ball across midcourt. Senior guard Eleaya Schuerch, directing traffic, started to dribble to her right where a teammate was coming to set a pick, dribbled off the side of her foot and the ball bounced out of bounds, taking EV’s lead and its momentum with it.

The Rams went on to take a 59-56 victory and advance to a winner-to-state game against Kamiakin today at 4 p.m. at Richland High School

EV’s Knights face Kennewick today at 5:30 at Richland in a loser-out game. That winner plays the loser of the West Valley-Yakima/Kamiakin game Saturday for the district’s second state berth.

“I told our players that this game was going to come down to defense,” EV coach Freddie Rehkow said. “We let them score 20 points in the fourth quarter. That’s not playing defense.

“What’s that tennis term, unforced errors? That’s what killed us.”

It did not help that West Valley did not miss a second-half free throw until there were just 6 seconds left in the game, connecting on 14 straight in the game to finish 14 of 16 from the line.

West Valley center Katie Hawkins and forward Erin Olander each were 6 for 6 from the line. Hawkins finished with a game-high 18 points to lead the Rams.

The Knights fell behind by as many as nine points in the second quarter, but roared back from a 19-10 deficit to tie the game at halftime, 28-28 behind 3-pointers by Kylee Williamson and Ashley Grater.

EV led by five with 5:38 left, but on consecutive possessions the Knights threw away outlet passes after pulling down clutch defensive rebounds.

“That’s how they came back,” Rehkow said. “We throw the ball away and just like that, our lead is gone.”

West Valley center Erin Richardson put back a rebound to cut the lead to three and Brittany Murillo drained a 3-pointer to even the game with 4:40 left.

Still the Knights held the advantage, leading 52-49 with 3:29 left.

Hawkins, who played the final 2:02 with four personal fouls, put the Rams up 53-52 with a pair of free throws, and muscled inside to take the lead for good at 55-54 with 1:42 left.

Williamson paced the Knights with 15 points. Schuerch was a standout from her guard position, crashing the boards for seven rebounds to go with her eight points and two steals.

Grater added seven boards.

The Knights face a fast turnaround. The team leaves for the Tri-Cities first thing today.

“This is nothing new for us,” Rehkow said. “It’s been a roller-coaster season for us. We win one, we lose one. We know how to bounce back. It’s just that we shouldn’t have to this time. This was our game to win.”