Kamiak girls succumb to Lewis & Clark
Published 10:25 pm Friday, March 6, 2009
TACOMA — Early in the second half, Kamiak trimmed a double-figure deficit to seven points and was very much in the game against Lewis and Clark at the Class 4A girls state basketball tournament. The Knights’ hope for a top-eight trophy was still very much alive.
Over the next 8½ minutes, that hope died emphatically.
Lewis and Clark of the Greater Spokane League, which brought a 25-2 record into the tournament, ran off 27 unanswered points to blow open Friday’s consolation-bracket game and end Kamiak’s season with a 69-26 victory at the Tacoma Dome.
“That was a tough one,” said Knights coach Jody Schauer. “I thought we were ready to play, but we just didn’t match their intensity. They were more physical than us and I think that affected us. We kind of backed down.”
Lewis and Clark outscored Kamiak 38-2 over the game’s final 13 minutes. Tigers forward Jeneva Anderson, bound for the University of Washington, was particularly troublesome, scoring 13 of her game-high 19 points in the second half.
Yet despite the lopsided final defeat, the Knights can still take away some memorable highlights from the 2008-09 season, Kamiak, which finished with a 17-8 record, qualified for the state tournament for just the second time in school history and won the school’s first state tourney game — a 55-51 decision against Mount Tahoma on Thursday.
The Knights also rallied from a sluggish start this season. They were 6-5 in mid-January, but then won eight straight games and finished the regular season with a 14-6 record before reaching the district championship game and qualifying for state.
“These kids found ways to win when nobody gave them credit,” Schauer said. “People thought we’d be good, but I don’t think they thought we’d get to state. So give these kids credit for fighting all season. Even when we were overmatched or when we had less skill than the other team, we still found ways to win.
“They’re just a terrific group of kids and I loved coming to work with them every day,” he added. “And they’ve kind of set the standard for Kamiak basketball now.”
At the Tacoma Dome
Kamiak9872—26
Lewis &Clark16131525—69
Kamiak—Sovich 2, Simmons 4, Barnes 0, Patrick 8, Burns 0, Kussman 5, Mahjoubian 0, Johnson 0, Stevens 0, Lipscomb 0, Larson 0, McClaskey 7. Lewis and Clark—Burke 0, Bech 0, Arquette 11, Blevins 11, Anderson 19, Holsinger 0, Travis 9, Hendricksen 9, Proctor 4, Kliewer 6. 3-point goals—Kussman 1, McClaskey 1, Arquette 1, Blevins 1, Hendricksen 1.
