Quinn Pederson leads 24-point quarter; Gonzaga Prep outlasts Lake Stevens 50-42, advances to Saturday game | State 4A girls

The thing about the state tournament is that not everyone is going to play for the state title. Teams that fall in the quarterfinals have to wake up early the next day, push aside the disappointment, summon whatever energy they might have felt, and still find a way to play for a different trophy than the one they had hoped for.

The motivating factor – other than pride – is that only three teams in each classification win their last game of the season, whether that’s for first, third or fourth place.

So, the Gonzaga Prep girls team – which had lost just once all season before falling to 11th-seeded Kennedy Catholic in a quarterfinal on Thursday – was on the floor at 9 a.m. ready to battle in the fourth-place bracket.

Despite a sluggish start, they turned on in the second half and survived to play on Saturday.

Trailing by nine at halftime, the Bullpups scored 24 points in the third quarter and eliminated the Lake Stevens Vikings 50-42 in a State 4A fourth-place bracket loser-out at Tacoma Dome on Friday.

“You come over here and everyone talks about how great it is, but then when you lose that first game, it’s just so dejecting because everyone who comes in here on that Thursday thinks they’re going to win the state championship,” Gonzaga Prep coach Geoff Arte said.

“I’m just so proud of our kids how they fought, because that was a pretty bad (first) half – not effort wise, it was a bad half shooting-wise again – and it would have been really easy for us to walk out of there and just hang our heads. And we didn’t.”

Junior Quinn Pederson led G-Prep (23-2) with 14 points, nine in the pivotal third quarter. Greater Spokane League MVP Aylah Cornwall added 13 points and senior Laura Thompson finished with 12. Junior Charlee Peterson scored just two points but grabbed 14 rebounds – and had one very big assist.

“Pederson has been kind of mired in a shooting slump,” Arte said. “She finally broke free today and just kept shooting and believing they would eventually go in.”

G-Prep led 37-35 after three and held Lake Stevens to just seven points in the fourth.

“That’s one of the proudest program wins we’ve have,” fourth-year coach Arte said. “I think it’s easy to get up for a state championship game. It’s hard at a 9 a.m. game when your dreams were dashed the day before.”

G-Prep got out of the gate quickly, scoring on two of its first three shots. But the Bullpups didn’t make another in the quarter, missing their next nine shots, and they trailed 9-6 after one. Also concerning, Cornwall picked up her second foul with about a minute to go in the period.

Pederson finally stopped the drought with a 3 early in the second, but it didn’t get much better. Cornwall watched most of the second on the bench, 6-foot post Noelani Tupua had eight in the period and Lake Stevens led 22-13 at intermission.

G-Prep shot 5 for 26 (19%) in the half – 2 for 11 from beyond the arc – with 11 turnovers. Cornwall went 0 for 5 and played just 6 minutes, 28 seconds in the half.

Arte actually took comfort that the nine-point deficit wasn’t worse heading into the lockers.

“I think it said 19% when I walked into halftime, and it was just like, ‘This feels like a win,’ ” he said.

Cornwall fed Peterson for a fastbreak layup to start the third, then Thompson popped a 3 to get within four. Lake Stevens replied with a Tupua corner 3, but Pederson hit from 3 and freshman Georgia Meiers hit a short jumper.

Pederson sank a pair of free throws to tie it at 35 with 1:05 left in the period. Thompson added two more from the line, G-Prep got a stop, and the Bullpups led 37-35 entering the fourth after a 24-point quarter.

G-Prep’s shooting woes came back at the start of the fourth, but Lake Stevens (22-5) had trouble holding onto the ball and the teams combined for three points over four minutes.

With 3:15 left, Peterson dove to save a ball from going out of bounds and tumbled onto the concrete at the end of the playing surface. While everyone was watching Peterson – concerned for her safety – the ball went straight to Cornwall, who nailed a 3 to put G-Prep up by four.

“That’s Charlee. She just does little things,” Arte said. “She was 20 feet out of bounds, saving that basketball – and sent a dime to Aylah, too.”

Cornwall drove the lane for two, and after a stop, Thompson hit a 3 from the corner to make it 46-39.

Lake Stevens turned it over twice, but G-Prep couldn’t add on, then Autumn Swobody hit a 3 to make it a four-point game again with 1:02 left.

Cornwall broke the press, and the Bullpups wound the clock down to 38 seconds, with six on the shot clock, and called timeout. Cornwall drove the lane, was fouled and made both to put it back to six.

The Vikings turned it over one more time, and G-Prep got the ball back with 19 seconds. Thompson swished a pair, and the Bullpups lived to play one more day.

“Every one of our kids – every kid, one through eight who played today – battled for whatever time they had and did their job as well as they could have in that second half,” Arte said. “And we got just enough shots to fall.”