MOUNT VERNON — Most prognosticators didn’t expect the Archbishop Murphy girls basketball team to get as close to the state tournament as they did.
The truly shocking part is the Wildcats nearly did it with their star player suffering through a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her knee the last three games of the season.
Despite a quick start, Archbishop Murphy ran out of gas Wednesday night one game shy of the state tournament, falling 48-33 to Lynden in a loser-out, winner-to-state 2A District 1 tournament game at Mount Vernon High School.
“I couldn’t ask for more from this group of girls,” said Archbishop Murphy first-year head coach Mark Bircher, who took over a program that graduated eight seniors. “They played their hearts out.”
Beth Carlson, a junior post, scored 16 points and had eight rebounds despite playing on a knee with a torn ACL.
“She’s been hurting pretty bad,” Bircher said. “The fact that she’s still playing is unbelievable. She’s just a warrior.”
Murphy came out on fire in the first quarter. Taking care of the ball — the Wildcats didn’t have a turnover until midway through the second quarter — and shooting well from the field, Archbishop Murphy never trailed in the quarter. Murphy guard Lizzie Hassebrock hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send the Wildcats into the second quarter with a 15-9 lead.
“We started out really strong,” said Carlson, who had eight of her points in the first quarter. “The first quarter was amazing how well we played.”
Lynden fought back, holding Archbishop Murphy to just two points over the final 6 minutes of the second quarter. Lynden still trailed by six points at halftime, but the tide had started to turn.
“We were stuck on 20 for a long time,” Bircher said of a scoreless 4-minute period in the second quarter in which the Wildcats went 0-for-4 from the field and turned the ball over on three straight possessions.
In the second half, Archbishop Murphy’s shooting woes continued. Lynden continued to collapse its defense on Carlson in the post, forcing Murphy to shoot from the outside, where its shots weren’t falling. The Wildcats went 1-for-11 from the field and turned the ball over three times as Lynden outscored them 13-3 in the third quarter to take a 29-25 lead and seemingly control of the game.
“They were sinking down more and we tried to spread it out more but our shots just weren’t falling,” said Carlson, who was held to one point in the quarter.
“We couldn’t buy a bucket,” Bircher added about the second half.
In the fourth quarter, Lynden hit its free throws, going 11-for-15 from the free-throw line, including 7-for-8 by Courtney Grattic, to seal the win and a trip to the state tournament.
With the season over, Carlson said she’s going to have surgery on her knee on Friday and start rehabbing for next season. The junior said she’ll likely skip the volleyball season in the fall to focus on returning to the basketball court completely healed.
But the junior did want to take one last look back.
“Our four seniors, give them credit for being great leaders,” Carlson said. “We didn’t know each other at the beginning of the season, but we got so much closer and really got to know each other as the season went along.
“I’m proud of where we got.”
At Mount Vernon H.S.
Lynden971319—48
Archbishop Murphy15738—33
Lynden—Warner 2, VanDalen 0, Sharp 0, Hommes 2, Mark 0, Brown 4, Stokes 8, Bouwman 4, Grattic 18, Benson 0, Somers 11. Archbishop Murphy—Carlson 16, Beck 0, Carroll 0, Schmidt 0, Cooper 5, Dye 0, Miller 2, Hassebrock 3, Maher 7. 3-point goals—Hassebrock 1, Maher 1. Records—Lynden 18-7 overall. Archbishop Murphy 16-6.
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