Eagles Love state: Freshman’s 22 points off bench lift WV
Ever the prophet, Lorin Carlon took his senior players aside at the start of the season. If they wanted to get to state, he told them, they would need the team’s freshmen to get them there.
The West Valley coach was proven right Tuesday when 5-foot-11 freshman Hannah Love came off the bench to score 22 points to lift the Eagles past Medical Lake 51-42 in a District 7 2A semifinal at West Valley.
The victory earned the Eagles their first state tournament berth in 11 seasons.
The freshman scored 10 points in the second quarter and accounted for two more after a steal and dish to Jordyn Sodorff as WV came back from a four-point deficit to an 11-point lead.
“We had a 10-point lead a couple times and (Medical Lake) kept coming back,” Carlon said. “They’re a good team. We came out a little rusty. We’ve had an eight-day layoff. We had a long layoff before we played them the first time.”
WV struggled with turnovers throughout the game and the Cardinals used them to cut their deficit to a single point late in the third quarter and tie the game at 38 with 6:25 to play in the game.
Love again stepped up, burying her second 3-pointer from the corner and connecting on 3 of 4 free throws to give the Eagles a five-point lead at 44-39 in a span of two minutes.
Sodorff, a 5-3 senior guard, sealed the victory with a pair of huge steals and a clutch rebound underneath the Medical Lake basket in the final three minutes.
“We’ve been working with Hannah and we’ve put in some plays to get her that shot from the corner,” Carlon said. “She’s got a sweet shot from there.”
Love has been the team’s best 3-point shooter most of season, he added.
“I think we were a little nervous at the start of the game,” Love said. “I just came in and tried to play the way I’ve been practicing. I’ve had a good week of practice.”
The last time the Eagles were in a state girls basketball tournament, at the end of the 1996-97 season, they came home with the Class 3A championship. Since then, times have been lean.
“The first year I was here helping out we were 1-20,” Carlon said. “The next year we were 2-19, then we were 3-17. A year ago we were 11-12. It’s been a long time since they’ve seen this kind of success here.”
The victory lifts WV to 17-4 this season. The Eagles play Pullman at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Eastern Washington University for the district championship and a No. 1 seed.
Medical Lake (11-11) was led by Liz Walker’s 10-point effort. The Cardinals play Clarkston at 5:45 Saturday for the third and final state berth.
Pullman 54, Clarkston 32: The Greyhounds outscored Clarkston 37-12 in the second half to avenge their semifinal loss to the Bantams in last year’s state tournament.
Kirsi Voshell scored 20 points to lead the regular-season champion Greyhounds, with Shelby Cheslek adding another 10.
Kellie McCann-Smith led all scorers with a 21-point effort for Clarkston.