Fjortoft, Barhoum lead Meadowdale in romp
Published 11:01 pm Wednesday, February 24, 2010
LYNNWOOD — Meadowdale’s girls basketball team scratched, clawed and fought on its way to as tough a comeback victory as the team has had all season. But that was last Friday.
The Maverick’s reward for nabbing the No. 1 seed from Shorecrest came Wednesday night in the form of a 3A District 1 playoff opener against Everett, winners of just three games this year.
The result was a predictable Meadowdale 74-44 romp in the Mavs (15-7) final home game of the year. They advance to face Lynnwood — a team they beat twice by at least 20 points during the regular season — in the quarterfinals at 6 p.m. Saturday at Glacier Peak H.S.
Everett has the unenviable role of the lone 3A team in the Wesco North and gets beat up by 4A state qualifiers like Lake Stevens and Marysville-Pilchuck every year. Everett coach John Low believes this Meadowdale squad could compete with the bigger schools.
“They are as good in my opinion as the Edmonds-Woodways, the Marysvilles,” Low said. “The top teams in 4A, I put them right up there with them.”
From the start Everett looked like it belonged on the same floor despite its subpar record. Jody Barhanovich drilled an open 3-pointer from the corner for the game’s first bucket and Molly Burton hit a turnaround inside to give the Seagulls a quick 5-0 advantage. They led until 5 minutes and 26 seconds into the first quarter when the Mavericks took over.
“We did get a good start,” Low said. “Our plan was to try to take away the penetration and make them shoot over the top of us.”
With Julia Fjortoft on the other side, that strategy usually doesn’t last long and Wednesday night was no exception. The senior guard hit three shots from behind the arc in the first 8:30 of the game and the rout was on.
“I recognized where the space was,” Fjortoft said. “There were a lot of opportunities to shoot. You have to take advantage of the opportunities that you have early on because they figure out that you are going to be shooting, so they focus on covering. So I try to make them early.”
That was the end of her long-range attack but the Fjortoft ended up with 21 points, a game-high nine steals and six assists to cap a standout career.
“It was nice,” Fjortoft said. “It was the last home game so I was really trying to enjoy all of it.”
A performance like that normally steals the show, but Margreet Barhoum heated up in the second quarter and showed why this Maverick team is a good bet to reach their preseason goal — placing in the state tournament.
Barhoum benefited most from Fjortoft’s assists and raced to a career and game-high 31 points. The sophomore, who minds the top of the Maverick pressure zone defense, had six steals, which often led to easy buckets on the other end.
“It’s nice when you get a steal that you know someone will be down there to throw it to,” Fjortoft said. “She’s fun to play with.”
Barhoum is so fast that many of her layins looked like she hadn’t gone back on defense.
“The thing that she understands is that she’s an instinctual basketball player,” Meadowdale coach Troy Parker said. “What we do best with her is we let her find her place. Usually when I’m overcoaching her that’s when she’s not playing well.”
Parker must not have said much to the 5-foot-6 guard Wednesday.
“She finishes as well at the rim as any guard in the league,” Parker said. “We do a really good job of finding her in positions that she can finish and my goodness gracious she finishes.”
It wasn’t a perfect night for the Mavs, who were exposed a bit rebounding, an area they will surely need to shore up if they hope to go far in the postseason.
Molly Burton and Jesselyn Taggart led the way for Everett with 12 points each. The Seagulls face a loser-out game at noon Saturday at Glacier Peak.
Note: At halftime Meadowdale student Ashley Aven was presented with a special letterman’s jacket from the softball team and a special poster from the basketball team. The senior softball letter winner was diagnosed with AML Leukemia in July. Donations can be made to the Ashley K. Aven foundation at any Wells Fargo branch.
At Meadowdale H.S.
Everett11101211—44
Meadowdale15241520—74
Everett—Hope 3, Sains 0, Bagley 2, H. Ayers 6, Olson 0, Barhanovich 8, Rogers 1, Harper 0, Burton 12, Taggart 12. Meadowdale—Hatch 2, J.Fjortoft 21, Barhoum 31, Landa 0, Rickel 4, Engstrom 2, Beyer 0, O’Neil 7, Roberts 0, Shrum 4, S. Fjortoft 3. 3-point goals—J Fjortoft 3, S. Fjortoft 1, Barhanovich 1, Barhoum 1, Hope 1, O’Neill 1. Records—Everett 3-19 overall. Meadowdale 15-7.
