Balanced attack boosts Meadowdale girls into semifinals against top-ranked Kennedy
Published 10:50 pm Thursday, March 12, 2009
TACOMA — With their second grind-it-out win in two days, the well-balanced Meadowdale Mavericks earned a spot in Class 3A state semifinals.
Now the interesting part: Meadowdale’s next opponent is undefeated and favored to win it all.
Propelled by a 15-7 third quarter, the Meadowdale High School girls basketball team held off the Enumclaw Hornets Thursday, winning 45-37 at the Tacoma Dome. Guard Julia Fjortoft (10 points, five rebounds, three assists) and forward Alexis Nugent (nine rebounds, five points, four steals) helped the Mavericks reach the semifinals for the first time since 2007.
Meadowdale (21-5) plays top-ranked Kennedy (26-0) at 8:30 p.m. Kennedy is a highly touted foe, but the Mavs don’t seem intimidated.
“I’ve seen Kennedy play,” first-year Meadowdale head coach Troy Parker said, “and they’re a really, really fine basketball team. But I’m not going to put anything past our group of kids.”
Kennedy, ranked No. 1 by the Tacoma News Tribune, beat No. 8 Lakeside Thursday.
Against unranked Enumclaw (17-10), seventh-ranked Meadowdale bogged down in the first half. But after that things got much better for the Mavs.
Ignited by Tanya Zickefoose’s two driving layins, Meadowdale outscored Enumclaw 15-7 in the third quarter.
“At some point, we tend to put a run together that wins the basketball game,” Parker said.
This time, Meadowdale made a run in the second half, increasing its lead to 12 points early in the fourth quarter on back-to-back baskets by Michaela O’Neill and Gabi Beyer.
“Meadowdale did a great job of just playing great defense on us,” Enumclaw coach Ted Carlson said, “and kind of took us out of our offense.”
Post Heather Hitch tallied 14 points and 11 rebounds for Enumclaw, which shot just 3-for-21 (14.3 percent) from the field over the final two quarters. For the game, the Hornets were 9-for-47 (19.1 percent) from the field and they committed 18 turnovers.
“We really focused on running more,” Fjortoft said when asked what changed after the first half. “I don’t think they could really stop us when they tried to press us.”
“It felt easy,” Fjortoft added. “It felt more like Meadowdale basketball.”
The first half? Not so much.
A total of twenty turnovers and 32 missed field goals — no, the first two quarters were not pretty for either team. But the good news for Meadowdale was it went to the halftime break tied 18-18, despite struggling. Fjortoft led the Mavericks with six points and three assists.
The Mavericks had success frustrating Enumclaw with full-court defense in the opening half. But Meadowdale gave up lots of possessions by committing 10 turnovers.
The Mavs stepped up in the third quarter though.
“We all pumped each other up at halftime,” said O’Neill, a reserve who scored six points and grabbed three boards. “We just talked to each other and said, ‘We’re fine. We’re in this.’”
Then they went out and won it.
At the Tacoma Dome
Meadowdale1261512—45
Enumclaw126712—37
Meadowdale — Zickefoose 8, Fjortoft 10, Barhoum, Landa, Molitor 2, Beyer 6, M. O’Neill 6, Horn 5, Nugent 5, C. O’Neill 3. Enumclaw — Bauer, Chynoweth 3, Kohler 2, Ramberg, Clark, Sayler 7, Abramson, Hitch 14, Koplitz 11, Sims, Hall. 3-point goals — Horn, C. O’Neill, Sayler, Chynowetch, Koplitz. Records — Meadowdale 21-5. Enumclaw 17-10.
Mike Cane: mcane@heraldnet.com. Check out the prep sports blog Double Team at cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/doubleteam.
