State 3A Girls: Eden Sander comes through in the clutch, Central Valley survives battle with Kennewick to advance

TACOMA – It’s difficult to beat a team three times in one season – especially when the final meeting comes in a state quarterfinal, with your best player not feeling their best.

Many of the games this week at Tacoma Dome – girls and boys – have been close, low-scoring games. It was no different on Thursday, when the top-seeded Central Valley girls tangled with seventh-seeded Kennewick for the third time this season.

As with the previous two games, the Bears emerged victorious – but it wasn’t easy.

Eden Sander scored 24 points with seven rebounds and the undefeated Bears outlasted the Lions 45-37 and advanced to a State 3A semifinal against 19th-seeded Garfield on Friday at 3:45 p.m.

Sander went 8 for 8 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.

“We just needed to settle down and it ended up working out,” Sander said. “I can’t be too mad. Got to the line a couple times, hit some good ones.”

McDonald’s All-American Brynn McGaughy added nine points on 3-of-14 shooting with 18 rebounds for Central Valley (25-0). McGaughy, the University of Washington commit and Greater Spokane League MVP, is dealing with a nagging lower-leg injury.

“It’s a day-to-day thing,” Central Valley coach Jason Wilson said. “One day she feels OK, the next day not so much. It’s just something we have to deal with and hope she can battle through.”

Rylee Bendewald led Kennewick (18-8) with 11 points and June Fiander added 10.

“(Bendewald) just battles inside,” Wilson said. “She gave Brynn problems today in the post.”

CV beat Kennewick 62-51 on Jan. 18 and again 58-47 in the District 6 championship game on Feb. 22 – both times on the road.

“We started slow against (Kennewick) the first two times and had to battle our way back,” Wilson said. “But if you watch them coming into this game, they’ve been playing really well, playing hard.”

Sander, the two-time Greater Spokane League Defensive Player of the Year, gets nowhere near the notoriety as her nationally ranked teammate, but is as essential to the Bears as McGaughy.

“I mean, if people doubted her ability, she did it on one of the biggest stages at the high school level,” Wilson said. “She was fantastic today, especially with the minutes (31) she played.”

The teams combined to shoot 13 of 53 (24.5%) in the first half as Central Valley led 18-16 .

“I wanted to attack early, kind of get the jitters away,” Wilson said, “and just get used to the feel of (the Dome) and go from there. … It was a rough (shooting) day.”

It didn’t get much better in the second half, and CV led 33-29 late in the third quarter. That’s when Sander took over the game.

She made four consecutive free throws and two contested shots in the lane, finishing with four more from the line to score CV’s final 12 points.

“We survived,” Wilson said. “It’s our first game (with a winning margin) inside double digits, which is weird for us. We’ve always found a way to make it comfortable at the end, but it’s probably good for us. It’s why we do all the work that we do.”