Glacier Peak girls basketball team bests Everett in foul-fest

Published 11:20 pm Wednesday, December 14, 2011

SNOHOMISH — Neither the Glacier Peak Grizzlies girls basketball team nor the Everett Seagulls will need to work on free throws very much during today’s practice.

Both teams got plenty of shots in Tuesday night.

The Grizzlies defeated the Seagulls 62-42 at Glacier Peak High School thanks to a barrage of points earned from the free-throw line. The 14 points by Katie Hawkins in the deciding fourth quarter didn’t hurt either.

“We knew that Everett was gonna be a tough team,” said Glacier Peak head coach Brian Hill. “We really focused our defense.”

Which led to fouls. A lot of fouls.

Both teams were shooting in the bonus — 1-and-1 free throws — by the end of the first quarter. In the second half Everett reached the double bonus — two free throws on any foul — with 1 minute, 30 seconds to play in the third quarter. Glacier Peak was there 12 seconds into the fourth quarter.

“It was gonna be a good defensive game,” Hill said. “Because you’re working that hard, there’s gonna be fouls.”

In the fourth quarter, 13 of Glacier Peak’s 27 points came from the free-throw line, including six of Hawkins’ 14. It was similar to the third quarter for Everett, where the Seagulls scored eight of their 12 points from the charity stripe.

Hawkins, who sat half of the first quarter because she was — surprise — in foul trouble, still finished with a team-high 21 points. She also had two steals.

“(Hawkins) was definitely a superstar in the fourth quarter,” Hill said.

The rest of the scoring was fairly balanced for the Grizzlies. Junior forward Allie Weathersby added 12 points and six rebounds and Julianne Gere had seven points and eight rebounds.

Hill said different players on his team had different roles for the game, such as focusing on defense. The result is a victory that he says was earned by the entire team.

“I had a couple players just keyed in on defense,” said Hill. “Some on rebounding. As long as their doing their job for the game we’re playing as a team.”

One of those special defensive assignments went to Taylor Rasmussen, who was guarding Everett’s Aliya Davis. Davis finished with 12 points, half of them coming from the free-throw line. Rasmussen, the shortest player on Glacier Peak’s varsity roster at 5-foot-3, scored six points — all from the free-throw line — and grabbed five rebounds.

Sidney Rielly led the Seagulls with 14 points, even in the face of constant defensive pressure and at times double teams by the Grizzlies’ defense. Hill said she was another focal point of Glacier Peak’s defense.

“They’ve got a team full of athletes,” Hill said of the Seagulls. “We just knew it was going to be a battle. … Anyone can hurt you on any given night.”

On this night everybody was hurting everybody, with players flying to the floor seemingly every trip down the court. Players would get fouled rebounding free throws from previous fouls.

The score, meanwhile, was close most of the way. At the start of the fourth quarter, Glacier Peak led 35-31. Once the Grizzlies hit the double bonus 12 seconds in, they started the quarter with an 8-0 run, six of which came from the free-throw line.

During that run the Seagulls, who suffered their first loss of the season, kept hitting iron. Once Hawkins got on a roll and made baskets on three consecutive trips down the court, the game was pretty much out of reach.

“We kept battling hard and stuck to our game plan,” Hill said. “It was a great team effort”

At Glacier Peak H.S.

Everett7121211—42

Glacier Peak1471427—62

Everett—Harper 3, Davis 12, Carr 9, D. Rielly 0, S. Rielly 14, Barhanovich 0, Sittauer 4, Hagar 0. Glacier Peak–Baird 0, Hawkins 21, Rasmussen 6, Gaffney 1, Hill 8, I. Smith 4, S. Smith 3, Gere 7, Fausey 0, Manning 0, Weathersby 12. 3-point goals—. Records–Everett 2-1 league, 4-1 overall. Glacier Peak 3-0, 3-1.