Scotties end season on disappointing note
Greg Hannan was disappointed. His Freeman Scotties had just lost their opening game of the state Class 1A boys high school basketball tournament.
But the loss did nothing to diminish his pride in the way his team played.
“I hate to lose – I always hate to lose,” he said following his team’s 63-56 loss in overtime to Bellevue Christian Wednesday. “But I am so proud of the way these kids have come together and played over the last month of the season. And when you take the top-ranked team to overtime, you’re doing some things right.
“What disappoints me is that we had a couple chances to put them away. We had an 11-point lead in the third quarter and we let them come back.”
Even a 57-49 loss to perennial state opponent King’s did little to dampen the first-year coach’s enthusiasm.
“These kids have been through a lot this year and they’ve had a lot of stuff to deal with,” he said. “Starting with losing their coach, Mike Thacker.
“I’m excited about what this team can be like next year. We’ve got some really talented kids coming back and we have a great group of young players coming off a successful junior varsity season. Next year we have a great chance to get back here (to the state tournament) and make some real noise.”
The Scotties nearly made the first-day’s biggest noise, putting the state’s No. 1 team in a huge hole late in the third quarter.
Sophomore Taylor Vold’s late field goal forced the game into overtime, where the Vikings pulled away behind leading scorer David Downs, who threw down nine of his game-high 23 points in the extra frame.
Senior Marc Soelberg scored 15 points to lead the Scotties, with Vold adding 13. Senior Jake Heinen and junior Chris Miller each added 10.
Against King’s, the two teams went toe-to-toe through three quarters before the Knights found breathing room late. The lead changed hands 23 times before Erich Fuhlendorg’s three-point play late in the third quarter gave King’s the lead for good.
Vold backed up his standout effort from Wednesday by scoring 14 points and pulling down seven boards. Soelberg finished his career with a 13-point effort.
The Scotties, 17-12, have now fallen to King’s four times since the 2002 tournament, when the Knights knocked off Freeman in the first round. In 2003 and 2004 King’s knocked off the Scotties in trophy games.
District champion Lakeside also found itself knocked out of the tournament after just two games.
Girls coach Matt Gregg was upset over his No. 3-ranked team’s opening round loss to Granger, a team that had not won a state tournament game in 30 years.
“We came in thinking about a shot at a state championship,” he said. “Now we have to regroup and go out there and play for fifth-place.”
Freeman picked a bad time to go stone-cold from the field and flat-footed on defense, he said.
“We haven’t given any team open looks from three-point range the way we did (against Granger),” he said. “We just did not defend well.”
Playing on a heavily taped ankle, junior Carley Heinen made a game effort to play, but was ineffective.
“I probably should have sat her down, but she really wanted to play and you have to admire someone with that much determination,” Gregg said. “There was so much tape on her ankle that it looked like she was wearing a cast.
“And her reputation preceded her, I think. (Granger) threw a diamond-and-one at her and she just couldn’t move well enough to work against it. I finally had to sit her down in the second half.”
The Scotties regrouped quickly, spanking Rainier by 31 points, taking a 60-29 victory Thursday morning. The team jumped out to a 21-6 lead after eight minutes of play and never looked back.
Sophomore Megan McIntyre and freshman MacKenzie Taylor scored 15 and 14 points, respectively, to lead a resurgent offense that shot 50-percent (26-for-52) from the field. McIntyre connected on 7-of-14 shots from the field while Taylor was a sizzling 6-for-7 from the outside.
Heinen connected on 4-of-8 shots from the floor and added nine points to the effort.