Vikings strike last
Lightning almost struck twice at the Arena for the second year in a row, but Lexi Belcher wasn’t going to allow it to happen.
One year after the Lightning of La Salle defeated Curlew to become state champions, the senior guard nailed a pair of free throws with 1.9 seconds remaining, giving Mossyrock a 47-46 win in Saturday’s girls State 2B tournament championship game.
With the Vikings trailing by a point and time dwindling, Belcher drove the lane and was fouled while putting up an off-balance jump shot. After a La Salle timeout, Mossyrock’s leading scorer calmly stepped up and hit both free throws.
“I started to think about all of the times up at the gym with my mom and she would be like, ‘OK, you’re down by one at the state championship game and you’re on the free-throw line, and you have to make these to win,’ ” said Belcher who along with Tisa Pelletier finished with a team-high 10 points. “I couldn’t believe this was actually happening now after all those years of her saying that to me.”
Mossyrock entered the final quarter down 35-32. A pair of Lightning (23-3) baskets stretched the deficit to seven before a pair of Alysha Kuse baskets and a three-point play from Pelletier – who also hauled in 14 rebounds – cut the La Salle lead to 40-39 with 3:58 remaining.
Theresa Anderton answered for the Lightning with a long 3-pointer, but Mossyrock’s Corina Allen hit a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession. Kuse hit a free throw at the 2:40 mark, tying the game for the first time since La Salle took a 2-0 lead 28 seconds into the contest.
Belcher’s two free throws with 2:19 remaining gave the Vikings (24-2) their first lead. But Molly McGree, who finished with 10 points and nine rebounds, came right back with a layin to tie the game at 45.
After Mossyrock turned the ball over, McGree hit a free throw and La Salle gathered the rebound, but gave it right back to the Vikings on a turnover violation, setting up the thrilling ending.
“Basketball is actually a very simple game and if you can’t make free throws and layins, you’re not going to win big games,” said La Salle head coach Todd Kent. “It wasn’t for a lack of effort, it just wasn’t falling for us. That’s just the way it goes.”
La Salle jumped out to an 18-6 lead after the first quarter. On defense, the Lightning gave Mossyrock fits, as Pelletier’s layin at the 2:18-mark was the lone field goal of the quarter for the Vikings. After Pelletier’s basket, Mossyrock didn’t hit another shot from the floor until Elena Belcher’s putback with 1:35 remaining in the half.
Jasmine Stohr handled much of the offensive workload for La Salle, scoring 12 first half-points, but she was held to a lone field goal and free throw in the second half, finishing with a game-high 15.
Mossyrock used an 11-6 run in the third quarter, with six points coming from Elena Belcher, cutting the La Salle lead 35-32 heading into the final quarter.
“I thought in the first half we panicked a little bit and we didn’t play smart basketball,” said Vikings head coach Gary Stamper. “As the game wore on, I thought we settled down a little bit and worked into a bit of a rhythm. … I told them offensively we just need to get some rhythm going. And I really felt that halfway through the second quarter we started getting the ball into the post and made things a little bit easier. That was probably, really, the turning point. It was an uphill battle from there, but we were in the game from that point on.”