Vikings top Spartans
Published 11:08 pm Wednesday, January 26, 2011
LAKE STEVENS — Don’t count on a good-sized halftime lead holding up against the Lake Stevens girls basketball team.
The Vikings turned a 28-12 deficit at the break into a 49-41 victory over Stanwood with an impressive second half.
The Vikings were motivated by the fact that this
was a battle between two teams tied for first place in the Wesco 4A North standings. But there was something even bigger at stake — at least in the girl’s minds.
“We have a bet with our coach, and if we win league we get to have a sleepover in the gym,” a smiling Brooke Pahukoa said.
The sophomore forward did everything but get out her sleeping bag Wednesday, leading the Vikings with a game-high 22 points. It was the fourth time this year she has broken the 20-point barrier and it couldn’t have happened in a bigger game at this point in the season.
“We love hanging out with each other,” Pahukoa said. “We see each other all the time except for at night, so we’d jump at a chance to get the sleepover.”
After the first half, it looked like the deal for a gym sleepover was all but dead. Up to that point, the Vikings had played some of their worst basketball.
“I told them at halftime that was as disappointed in them as I’d ever been,” Vikings coach Randall Edens said.
When Pahukoa took a breather to open the second quarter, the Spartans seized the momentum after a back-and forth first quarter.
The Spartans’ Samantha Kelleigh hit the first of her game-high three 3-pointers that turned what felt like a close game into a Stanwood parade even after Pahukoa returned. Kelleigh came off the bench to tie for team-high scoring honors with 11 points.
Stanwood closed the final five minutes, 15 seconds of the first half on a 14-0 run. It looked like a team eager to avenge the 17-point loss to the Vikings suffered at Stanwood earlier in the season.
As the game began to slip away, the Vikings kept trying to make more and more spectacular passes to get back into the game only to find the more disciplined Spartans on the receiving end of turnovers and rebounds.
“It was really uncharacteristic of our group,” Edens said.
The Vikings opened the second half in a trapping full-court press and all everything quickly fell into place.
After the Viking’s Katie Goddard, who finished with 10 points, made a pair of free throws, Pahukoa stole the first Spartan possession of the half, took the ball the length of the floor and converted the layin despite being fouled. Pahukoa missed the ensuing free throw, but the home crowd’s energy showed that this game wasn’t over even with its team trailing by 12.
“We talked to our coach at halftime and every single member of the team stepped it up,” Pahukoa said. “I knew that our team would pick it up. I had no doubt.”
The Vikings retook the lead at 35-34 when Meghan Warbis hit a pair of free throws, which were two of her six on the night and the only way she scored.
Kelleigh hit her final 3-pointer of the night to retake the lead for the Spartans at 40-39. With about a minute to go and the Vikings leading by three, the referees whistled an intentional foul call against Stanwood’s Paisley Heckman, who scored 11 points in the game. It left many including Spartan coach Dennis Kloke scratching his head, and Lake Stevens made two free throws and the got the ball. The Vikings were very much in control until Edens called what seemed like a needless timeout.
“During that time out toward the end, I (told them) that’s the proudest I’ve ever been,” he said.
That includes last year when the Vikings earned a trip to the 4A state tournament — a feat they hope to repeat in 2011.
At Lake Stevens H.S.
Stanwood 14 14 6 7 — 41
Lake Stevens 10 2 18 19 — 49
Stanwood — Lucero 6, Bingham 1, Murphy 4, Borseth 4, Kelleigh 11, Swartz 4, Heckman 11. Lake Stevens — Goddard 10, Puha 2, Ziskovsky 0, Warbis 6, Wilson 0, Burke 3, Blackmon 0, Molstre 4, Bri. Pahukoa 2, Bro. Pahukoa 22. 3-point goals — Kelleigh 3, Goddard 1, Bro. Pahukoa 1. Records — Stanwood 8-4 league, 12-5 overall. Lake Stevens 9-3, 14-3.
