Vikings top Timberwolves
Published 10:29 pm Wednesday, January 19, 2011
LAKE STEVENS — Knowing they faced a size disadvantage against Jackson on Wednesday night, the Lake Stevens girls basketball team figured to counter with speed.
The Vikings sure figured right.
Combining a pressuring defense with an explosive fast break, Lake Stevens jumped out to
an early lead and never trailed on the way to a 44-32 victory over the visiting Timberwolves in a clash of top Western Conference 4A contenders.
“We felt with their size, that if we could rebound … we could get out and run,” said Lake Stevens coach Randall Edens. “And when that happened, we were able to (run).”
The Vikings improved their season record to 13-2 and their first-place mark in the North Division to 8-2. Jackson slipped to 9-7 overall and 5-5 in the South.
“It was a good win,” Edens said. “Jackson is a tough club and they’re going to be dynamite in another year or two, if not by the end of the year, with all those young kids. But I think our experience really helped us out.”
Lake Stevens set a tone for the evening when guard Katie Goddard made a steal on the opening possession and scored with a breakaway layin. The teams briefly traded baskets, but when Vikings guard Meghan Warbis scored with another breakaway layin some 90 seconds later Lake Stevens was on top to stay.
Warbis’ basket provided the first two of eight straight points by the Vikings, who led 12-4 late in the first quarter. Jackson rallied to close within 16-13 by the end of the period, and was within one point, 20-19, with five minutes to play in the second quarter.
But from there Lake Stevens began to pull away. Jackson went scoreless for the last five minutes of the half and trailed 25-19 at the break — the T-wolves were just 5-for-32 from the field in the half — and in the third quarter guard Brooke Pahukoa scored the first eight points for the Vikings as the lead grew to 35-26.
Pahukoa added another five points in the fourth quarter, on her way to a game-high 15, and the margin stayed between eight and 12 points through the final period.
Afterward, Edens and Jackson coach Jeannie Boyer could both lament poor shooting, though both also said the other team’s defense was partly the reason.
The Vikings missed far too many layins, Edens said, “and we’ve got to be able to convert those. I think we were sometimes in too much of a hurry, but we have to finish the easy stuff by the basket.”
Lake Stevens got nine points from forward Abby Molstre, who was the team’s hustle leader with rebounding and defense, particularly when Pahukoa spent stretches on the bench with foul trouble.
“We ask her to be a tough defender and go get every rebound because she can,” Edens said of Molstre, a 5-foot-7 junior. “She’s just a tremendous athlete. … We’re really excited about her game going forward. I think she’s going to do some big things for us before it’s all said and done this season.”
Overall, Edens was pleased with the outcome, but he knows his squad still needs to improve. “I hope (the players) think they need to continue to work, because I sure do,” he said.
Jackson, a young team that starts one senior, two juniors and two freshmen, was led by the 10 points of forward Kristin Stoffel. Guard Kelli Kingma, one of the freshmen, added nine points.
At Lake Stevens H.S.
Jackson 13 6 7 6 — 32
Lake Stevens 16 9 10 9 — 44
Jackson—Hicks 0, Gjertsen 6, Coacher 2, Kingma 9, Johnson 3, King 2, Stoffel 10. Lake Stevens—Goddard 4, Puha 4, Ziskovsky 0, Warbis 4, Burke 8, Molstre 9, Brittney Pahukoa 0, Brooke Pahukoa 15. 3-point shots—Johnson 1. Records—Jackson is 5-5 in league, 9-7 overall. Lake Stevens is 8-2, 13-2.
