Lake Stevens wins in double overtime

Published 11:43 pm Friday, December 28, 2007

AUBURN — It truly was a tale of two halves — and two overtimes — for the Lake Stevens Vikings Friday afternoon in Auburn, as Lake Stevens built a big halftime lead, blew it in the second half, then hung on through two overtimes to win 59-55 over Moses Lake.

Karri Gallagher’s final two of her game-high 28 points on a putback of a missed free throw by Brittany Tri sealed the contest for the Vikings on Friday at the third annual Riverside Invitational at Auburn Riverside High School.

“I couldn’t have done it without my teammates,” a humble and subdued Gallagher said after the game. “It was great.”

Lake Stevens used an 11-4 run at the end of the first quarter to lead 18-11 after eight minutes.

Then the Lake Stevens defense went to work. The Vikings turned several Chiefs turnovers into quick transition baskets, including two by Mary Ochiltree and one by Leah Tate to take a 35-18 lead into halftime.

But the solid ball-handling and quick transition game that served Lake Stevens so well in the first half, quickly evaporated in the second. After turning the ball over just three times in the first half, the Vikings tallied 11 in the second and Moses Lake began to take advantage of the Lake Stevens miscues and second-chance points to climb back into the game.

“As well as we played in the first half, we kind of had the exact opposite in the second half,” Lake Stevens coach Randall Edens said. “We kind of rested on that, and you can’t do that in a tournament like this.”

The Vikings led 43-27 with 2:20 to play in the third quarter before Moses Lake reeled off 15 unanswered points over the next 5:50 to climb within one at 43-42.

The Chiefs finally tied the score at 48 when Carly Noyes got her own rebound after a missed free throw with 1:04 remaining. The Vikings had a chance to win with 11.3 seconds to go, but Tate missed the front end of a one-and-one to send the contest to overtime with the score knotted at 50-50.

“I think we did a better job in the second half with our attitude and our effort,” Moses Lake coach Matt Strophy said. “When we have that type of mentality only we can stop ourselves.”

The Vikings again failed to convert at the line in the first overtime, shooting just 2-for-8 from the charity stripe and the game went into double overtime tied at 52.

But the second overtime was all Gallagher. With Moses Lake leading 55-54 with 1:31 to play, Gallagher converted a three-point play to give the lead back to Lake Stevens. A minute later, her putback clinched the contest, putting the Vikings into the “White” division championship at 5:45 tonight against Jesuit (Portland, Ore.).

“We need to go through that — we need to figure out how to get things done,” Edens said. “It’s a tremendous test to our group and it’s going to pay dividends down the road, no doubt about it.”

In addition to Gallagher’s 28 points, the Vikings got 16 from Ochiltree. Freshman point guard Jordan Loera led Moses Lake with 21 points.

At Auburn Riverside H.S.

ML117181423—55

LS18178727—59

Lake Stevens — Ochiltree 16, Tri 5, Tate 4, Personius 2, Gallagher 28, Bostwick 4, Warbis, Schumacher. Moses Lake — Sutherland 2, Loera 21, Montgomery, A. Noyes 17, C. Noyes 8, Ballinger 5, Williamson, Hirz 2, Kenner. 3 point goals — Ochiltree 1, Loera 2, Ballinger 1. Records — Lake Stevens 7-0 overall. Moses Lake not reported.