Experienced Tigers ready
Jim Redmon hopes state experience means something.
The Lewis and Clark girls basketball coach is taking a team to state for an eighth straight year. The Tigers have captured trophies five consecutive seasons, including consecutive titles from 2006-08.
“Seven of our 11 kids have been there numerous times,” Redmon said. “The seniors have been there four times. We hope the experience factor helps us.”
LC (16-9) opens against Issaquah (21-4) at 10:30 this morning when the tournament begins at the Tacoma Dome. Eastern regional champ Mead (21-5) takes on Puyallup (18-8) at 5 p.m.
The Tigers head to state playing the best they’ve played all season.
“I’m extremely proud of how we played defensively (at regional),” Redmon said. “I truly believe you have to stop teams at state. You have to get stops. Virtually every team in the tournament knows how to score.
“(At regional) they really showed some things that we believe in and have done for years at LC.”
More of the same?
Mead’s girls have won six straight since losing to Central Valley in the last regular-season game that decided the league championship.
It started with a loser-out game to get into the district tournament.
“I don’t think anyone expected them to do that at the beginning of the year,” Mead coach Regan Drew said of winning the regional title. “We’ve had some hard lessons to learn. We got thumped at the beginning of the year and lost some games we felt we got outhustled in. But they’ve focused and worked hard to see the big picture. We have so many kids who are unselfish and maximize their roles.”
Panthers senior Jazmine Redmon, who was named the regional most valuable player, can’t wait to show the rest of the state what her team can do.
“We’re going to prove a point that we’re a strong team and we can hang with anyone and win,” Redmon said.
Ready to go
The loss to Gonzaga Prep in the regional final aside, Mead boys coach Glenn Williams likes his team’s frame of mind going into state.
“I think we’ve played our best basketball the last couple of weeks,” Williams said.
He knows the Panthers will have their hands full trying to contain Kentwood’s 6-foot-9 post Josh Smith, who is headed to UCLA.
Smith missed the first half of the season recovering from a football injury. That explains why Kentwood (16-10) has double-digit losses.
“They were one of the favorites for state going into the season,” Williams said. “(Smith) takes up a large part of the basketball floor.”
Williams said he would have to study film on Kentwood before deciding specifically how to defend Smith.
“We plan to be us,” Williams said. “We’d like a fast pace and make him run up and down the floor.”
Notes
The sixth-ranked Lincoln boys upset No. 1 Federal Way 59-56 Friday in the West Central district title game. Lincoln rallied from a 21-point deficit in the fourth quarter. Both teams qualified for state. “I’ve been in some wild comebacks before, but not like this,” Lincoln coach Aubrey Shelton told Tacoma News Tribune reporter Doug Pacey. “Not against a team that good.” … The top-ranked Auburn Riverside girls (25-0) have won 19 games by double digits. They beat visiting Lewis and Clark 65-58 in late December. … Mead’s boys lost to Auburn, Gonzaga Prep’s first-round foe, 64-59 in overtime at a tournament in Wenatchee in late December.