East Valley falls in semis to WF West

YAKIMA – East Valley’s quest for a 2A girls state basketball title will have to wait at least one more year.

The No 5 ranked Knights were simply outgunned by a focused WF West squad and lost their state tournament semifinal game, 57-42, Friday night at the Yakima SunDome.

The Eagles (21-4) will face Ellensburg in the consolation game today at 1 p.m. East Valley is guaranteed its best finish ever regardless of the outcome. The Knights’ sixth-place finish in 2014 was the best to date.

Defending champion West needed the win Friday to get another shot at 2013 champion Mark Morris, which throttled Ellensburg earlier in the day. The Monarchs defeated West 67-40 in their district title match-up two weeks ago. Those teams will meet in the 7 p.m. title game.

West’s inside tandem of 2014 tourney MVP Julie Spencer (6-foot-2) and Tiana Parker (6-foot-3) were too much for East Valley to handle. Spencer had 18 points and 10 rebounds and Parker had 13 points and eight rebounds.

“Thats’s a real good team,” East Valley coach Rob Collins said. “We hurt ourselves because we missed a lot of easy shots early.”

The Bearcats jetted to a 10-1 lead before Maddie Bastin converted a 3 pointer with 2:31 remaining in the period. It didn’t get any better the rest of the way with the Bearcats sporting a 17-4 lead.

After West seized a 26-9 lead just past the midway point of the second period, Jordan Phelan hit three straight baskets near the end of the second period to draw the Knights to within 10 at halftime, 26-16.

The Knights whittled the lead down to eight at 29-21 early in the third quarter but couldn’t get closer.

Hannah Burland led the Knights with 17 points and nine rebounds.