State 3A girls: Central Valley shuts down Lakeside 39-34; earns seventh state title in 10 trips

TACOMA – If someone had told Central Valley girls basketball coach Jason Wilson his team would only score 39 points in the state title game, he would not have given his Bears much of a chance.

“I would have said we’d have lost by 20.”

It’s funny how things work out.

Tied at 28 after three quarters, the Bears limited Lakeside to two baskets in the fourth and pulled off a 39-34 win in the State 3A championship game on Saturday at the Tacoma Dome.

McDonald’s All-American and Greater Spokane League MVP Brynn McGaughy was the only Bear to score in double figures with 11 points. She added 11 rebounds and two blocked shots.

Freshman Helena Christofilis led Lakeside with 14 points. Senior Willa Chinn, who entered the game averaging 17 points in the tournament, was held to six on 3-of-12 shooting from the field before fouling out in the third quarter.

CV finished the season 27-0 with its seventh title in 10 trips and the first since 2020. The Bears are the 32nd Greater Spokane League girls team in 48 years to play for a 4A or 3A state title – and the 19th to bring one back home.

“Girls basketball in Spokane has been great for years,” Wilson said. “Regardless of the success, there’s still not enough credit given to the East Side. But the proof’s in the success, right?”

“We came into this game like, ‘Hey, we want to get some of the looks, we want to get the media and all that,’” McGaughy said. “It’s hard to be undefeated, but you know, we just worked every single day in practice with the right mindset.”

The defense was relentless from both sides – CV shot 39% and Lakeside was 32%. There were more turnovers than made baskets in the game.

“Ever since I’ve been coaching basketball, it’s been about doing the things that you can control,” Wilson said. “So, defense, rebounding, communication, those types of things. You can’t control the shots, you can’t control the turnovers, you can’t control that end. So that’s what we’ve been preaching all year.”

CV averaged 68.5 points per game this season.

“I don’t know why we weren’t scoring the ball. I think it’s just the dome,” CV’s Gabbie Wilson said. “But defensively, that’s what we worked on coming up to state. Like, defensively, we have to press the ball. That’s just gonna win us state.”

Four players, all seniors, for the Bears – McGaughy, Eden Sander, Keana Gosney and Wilson – played 28 or more minutes.

“It’s amazing. Just the fight, the effort,” Wilson said. “To play that good of defense for that long is amazing.”

Several of the Bears, including McGaughy and Sander, were dealing with injuries. Sander is scheduled for foot surgery next week.

“I told them earlier that nobody cares about the pain or what you’re going through. They just want to know if you got the job done,” Wilson said. “We have a lot of girls that, as excited as they are to win a state championship, they’re gonna be glad to have some time off too, because it’s been a long, long season.”

“It’s hard being injured and all that, but at that point it’s just mental,” McGaughy said. “You have to push through – not for yourself, but for your team and for your coaches and for the ones that came before us. So, yeah, it’s definitely hard, but after this I’ll rest up a little bit and then I’ll bounce back.”

The Bears went 10-10 when the five seniors on the team were freshmen.

“Ever since freshman year, we’ve been talking about – me, Eden, Keana – since freshman year, getting into the dome and winning state,” Wilson said. “It’s awesome.”

“It’s been so great developing, getting better, getting a better record each season,” Sander said. “It’s been so amazing, with the best people.”

CV raced out to a 10-2 lead, with McGaughy scoring twice and adding a blocked shot that led to a fastbreak bucket. Lakeside coach Mia Augustavo-Fisher asked for timeout.

The Lions got a 3-pointer from Kaliya Woodard and CV led 12-7 after one quarter.

Wilson hit a floater early in the second quarter to make it 18-8. Lakeside went more than eight minutes between the quarters without a basket, but CV wasn’t much better.

“(Sander) rolled her ankle last game, so I knew I had to step up help our team out,” Wilson said. “Coach likes me in the high post to get some early buckets and it really helped us out in the first half.”

Wilson hit a 3-pointer with 1:45 left and the Bears led 25-13 at halftime. Chinn went 0 for 9; Lakeside went 4 of 27 (14.8%) and had four baskets in the first half.

Chinn made her first basket of the game on Lakeside’s first possession of the second half. McGaughy knocked down a 3-pointer, but an 11-3 run by Lakeside made it a four-point game with 3:21 left in the quarter. Chinn hit a floater with 1:05 left but picked up her fifth foul the next time down.

Woodard made a layup with 25 seconds to go, and it was tied at 28 entering the fourth.

“We knew they were a second-half team, so we were prepared for that,” Sander said. “We knew it would be a struggle coming out of half, so we just had to really lock in mentally and just weather the storm.”

Christofilis’ layup gave Lakeside its first lead on the first possession of the quarter, and it stayed that way until McGaughy made a pair of free throws with 5:29 to go, snapping an eight-minute-plus drought for the Bears.

“Coach emphasizes it so much. Like every single time we break, he just says ‘Defense,’ ” McGaughy said. “And that’s just the mentality going in and going out (of timeouts). Just understanding that we have this. There’s no other choice but to stop them.”

McGaughy scored on an offensive rebound and Drae Domebo went the distance with a steal to make it 34-30 with four minutes left. Sander scooped one with 40 seconds left for a six-point lead and CV held on for the win.

McGaughy, who heads to University of Washington in the fall, ends her high school career as a two-time state champ, including her title at 2B Colfax as a sophomore.

“It’s been a wild ride, for sure,” she said. “Being a freshman at Colfax, the bright lights and all that, it was scary. I went into this game not nervous one bit. I mean, a little nervous, just because I want to win so bad for my team, but just the growth and all that. And then, the recruiting process was obviously a wild ride, too.”.”