La Salle, Mossyrock will meet in final

After months of blood, sweat and tears, the girls State 2B basketball tournament championship game is set.

One team vying for the title in today’s 6 p.m. title contest will be La Salle, which dismantled Evergreen Lutheran 59-33 in Friday’s first semifinal contest at the Arena.

The Lightning will face the Vikings from Mossyrock, who defeated Waterville 66-41 in the late game.

Evergreen Lutheran opened its game with a pair of free throws and that was the only lead it would enjoy, as La Salle went on a 17-0 scoring run.

A majority of the points came after the Lightning (23-2) capitalized on a number of Evergreen Lutheran missed shots and turnovers. Monica Schneider was instrumental in the run, as she created four points off a pair of steals during the opening minutes of the contest. Dani Blodgett picked up another steal, and proceeded to hit a 3-pointer at the 2:40 mark, giving the Lightning a 17-3 lead heading into the second quarter.

“We go 10 deep and it’s oftentimes 12, so we want to make the basketball game into 94 feet and make it into a track meet,” said La Salle head coach Todd Kent. “If we can get the other team fatigued and force them into bad passes, we can create opportunities off transition. That was the game plan: run ‘em, run ‘em, run ‘em.”

The rest of the half was more of the same, with La Salle doing an excellent job keeping the Eagles (24-3) off the scoreboard. Jasmine Stohr, who dumped in a game-high 14 points, scored a pair of baskets to stretch the Lightning lead 27-9 and Megan Bonny knocked down a 3-pointer at the buzzer, giving La Salle a commanding 32-11 lead at the half.

Molly McGree grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds for the Lightning, and Erika Laete recorded team-highs of nine points and 14 rebounds for the Eagles.

Mossyrock showed similar domination in its semifinal contest, as it rolled over Waterville 66-41.

The Vikings (23-2) took an early lead thanks to scoring from all areas of the offensive end. A pair of back-to-back 3-pointers from Sarah Petrino jump-started Mossyrock to an 11-7 lead. The 5-5 guard finished with 15 points, including 4 of 7 from 3-point range.

Tisa Pelletier went inside scoring on a couple of putbacks, the first of which sparked a 15-2 Mossyrock run. Pelletier scored eight of her 10 points in the half.

“It really felt like offensively we tried to take it right at them, and maybe see if they could beat us from the outside,” said Mossyrock head coach Gary Stamper. “That was our game plan. We got out on their shooters, and of course our shooters started hitting. I was really happy for our post players – in the first half they were really active.”

Lexi Belcher entered the scoring barrage by pouring in 13 of her 16 first-half points in the second quarter. She also dished off a couple of nifty passes that were finished off by her sister Elena, as the Vikings sat on top 37-12 at the break. Lexi Belcher hauled in 10 rebounds and scored a game-high 19 points to lead four Mossyrock players scoring in double figures.

“I took what they were giving me, letting me drive to the basket,” the senior guard said. “Teams like to take the (3-pointer) away from me because of that record I got my sophomore year, so I guess the drives were there and I was hitting.”

Mossyrock kept the heat on to begin the second half with a long 3-pointer from Petrino at the 6:35-mark, and another from Lexi Belcher 25 seconds later. Corina Allen netted eight in the half to finish with 11 for the Vikings, whose bench outscored Waterville’s 34-5.

Jacque Brown paced the Shockers (22-4), who take on Evergreen Lutheran in a 3:30 p.m. third-place game, with team highs of 12 points and six rebounds.

“We have kids that can shoot the ball offensively,” Stamper said. “When we’re clicking on all cylinders, offensively, we’re pretty good.”