Lake Stevens girls win, play Bellarmine Prep for 4th place

Published 5:37 pm Friday, March 4, 2011

TACOMA — The Lake Stevens girls basketball team and coach Randy Edens reached their most important goal of the season at the Tacoma Dome Friday.

Though all were disappointed Thursday with a close loss to Chiawana, the Vikings were all smiles after knocking off Mt. Rainier 46-41 and assuring themselves their first trophy since Edens has been their coach.

“That was our number one goal getting here,” said the sixth-year coach after the victory Friday afternoon.

Lake Stevens plays Bellarmine Prep at 9:30 a.m. today for fourth and sixth places in the 4A state tournament.

The spark that propelled Lake Stevens came from an unlikely source in a game that was unlike any the Vikings (22-4) played all season.

Reserve guard Mahea Puha averages just 3.6 points per game, but during the first half she represented more than half of the Lake Stevens offense.

“I thought about this game last night and I said, ‘I wasn’t going to go home, my team wasn’t going to go home.'” Puha said. “We were going to stay and we are fighting for fourth (place).”

The senior reserve guard hit four of her five attempts on the way to eight points all of which came in the first half. The rest of the Vikings struggled to make anything despite plenty of open looks. Without Puha’s contribution, the team shot 2-for-22 before halftime.

Lake Stevens trailed 8-2 before Puha checked in during the first quarter and she helped the team keep its head above water. The Vikings trailed 19-15 at the break.

“We talked about how day two you just don’t have the legs for shooting,” Edens said. “Kids have expended a lot of energy. You can’t settle for 20-footers, which we wanted to do early. You’ve got to find ways to get to the basket and we didn’t do a very good job of that.”

Mt. Rainier freshman phenom Brittany McPhee, who scored 27 points in an opening-round loss to Federal Way, found ways to get to the basket early on her way to 14 first-half points. She shot 6-for-10 from the field in the half.

The Vikings’ defense was strong, but it let the Rams guard get too close to the hoop. McPhee collected 12 rebounds on the day. She is averaging more than 20 points and 10 rebounds after two games in Tacoma.

“That was the only thing on our board (at half in the locker room),” Edens said. “She can’t beat us. We just are allowing her to do whatever she wants.”

The Vikings changed their approach and the freshman guard was held scoreless in the third quarter. A garbage-time 3 as time expired gave her 21 points.

“We just tried to faceguard and deny and it was really effective,” Edens said.

In the third quarter, the Vikings offense raced out to a 13-0 run that gave the team a lead which would never be threatened. After shooting 11 percent in the first half (minus Puha’s contribution), Lake Stevens shot 39 percent in the second.

Brooke Pahukoa, who leads the Vikes in scoring with 16 per game, had a forgettable first half, missing her first five shots while picking up two fouls and three turnovers. The sophomore made some great defensive plays including a block and three steals, but rushed on the offensive side. And Pahukoa wasn’t the only Viking who was pressing early.

“The biggest thing I’m struggling with is getting our kids to settle down at certain junctures,” Edens said. “They are doing some things that are very uncharacteristic with what we’ve seen all year.”

Pahukoa rebounded nicely in the second half to score 12 points to go with six boards.

Senior Corinne Burke also scored all of her six points after the break to go with seven boards, four assists and four steals.

Puha played just a single minute in the second half but the rest of her team stepped up and didn’t need the offense she flashed in the first half.

“No matter what, we don’t care who it is as long as someone can pick us all up we are always happy for that,” Puha said.

At the Tacoma Dome

Lake Stevens 4 11 17 14 — 46

Mt. Rainier 10 9 4 18 — 41

Lake Stevens–Goddard 4, Puha 8, Ziskovsky 0, Warbis 4, Wilson 0, Burke 6, Molstre 6, Bri. Pahukoa 6, Bro. Pahukoa 12. Mt. Rainier–J. McPhee 6, Mitchell 2, Guillot 5, B. McPhee 21, Kapetanovic 0, Goucher 0, Codd 0, Workman, Gandy 7. 3-point goals–Guillot 1, B. McPhee 1, Warbis 1. Records–Lake Stevens 22-4, Mt. Rainier 21-7.