SNOHOMISH — Ever since earning the state’s No. 2 ranking in the most recent Associated Press poll, things haven’t gone well for the Glacier Peak girls basketball team.
After starting the season 12-0, the Grizzlies lost their second consecutive game on Friday, falling at home 64-60 to Edmonds-Woodway.
The Grizzlies can only hope to bounce back from adversity the way the Warriors have. Edmonds-Woodway has won two straight after a 33-point blowout against No. 1 ranked Lynnwood last week.
“We didn’t get down,” Edmonds-Woodway head coach Rebekah Wells said. “They just knew that we didn’t play well (against Lynnwood). The girls in the locker room after the game were like, ‘You know what, that’s a good team and we just didn’t play well.’ We didn’t ever hang our heads. We said, ‘How can we play better?’”
It appears the Warriors have figured out the answer with Friday’s win.
“It was a really big win just going into finishing off (the first half of the league schedule),” Wells said. “We’ve played everyone once now, so now you know kind of what you’re going against. We knew Glacier Peak is a good team, but we just had to come in ready to play. In our two losses, to Lynnwood and (Bishop) Blanchet, we just didn’t play our game and we let people take advantage of us. Today, they just came out firing and everyone was playing well.”
Edmonds-Woodway took control of the game in the second quarter. The teams were tied at 13 after one, but the Warriors connected on six of their first seven shots to take a six-point lead. They outscored the Grizzlies by seven in the quarter to take a 36-29 lead at halftime.
“When we run things well and we don’t freak out or try and get a quick shot, we do things amazing,” Wells said. “It’s just great to see how this team can play. When we panic a little bit when our offense isn’t firing, we go too quickly. When we’re patient, those quarters can come.”
The Warriors extended their lead to nine by the end of the third quarter, but the Grizzlies weren’t done just yet.
Glacier Peak started the fourth quarter on a 9-2 run to cut the Edmonds-Woodway advantage to 56-54. Edmonds-Woodway junior Mady Burdett stopped the run with a jumper from just inside the 3-point-line that pushed the lead back to four. Senior Natalie Kasper added a jump shot of her own to give the Warriors six point advantage with 3:09 to play in the game.
Once again the Grizzlies responded, this time with a 5-0 run the cut Edmonds-Woodway lead to 60-59.
And once again Burdett answered.
Her 3-pointer with 1:30 remaining gave the Warriors a 63-59 advantage.
“Mady Burdett is a really great shooter,” Wells said. “Some days she can score a ton and some days she’s just that shooter that comes alive. She did that against Arlington for us. In the fourth quarter and in overtime she was the one that scored all the points. She just is calm and plays her game.”
The Grizzlies pulled to within one with a free throw by junior Natalie Rasmussen and had a chance to tie with under 10 seconds remaining, but sophomore Paisley Johnson’s three missed the mark and Edmonds-Woodway claimed the rebound and moments later the victory.
Edmonds-Woodway senior Moni Jackson lead all scorers with 20 points.
“She did a great job of just setting up the offense and knowing when to take her drives, making smart choices and being a threat out there on defense,” Wells said. “It seemed like she was unguardable at times. The pressure didn’t get to her today.”
The difficult week could turn out to be a learning experience for the Grizzlies when they go into what is expected to be an extremely competitive 3A district 1 tournament.
“As soon as we get to districts, it’s not going to be any easier than it’s been this week,” Brian Hill said. “We’ve got to learn and we’ve got stuff to improve on things to work on. Districts isn’t going to be any easier than this, so if you can’t handle this, how are you going to handle districts? It’s better to get this, hopefully, out of the way and rebound and come back stronger.”
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