Edmonds-Woodway girls mount comeback vs. Stanwood in district semis

Published 12:15 am Thursday, February 19, 2026

SNOHOMISH — When Stanwood girls basketball went on a 9-0 second-quarter run to turn a 17-13 deficit into a 22-17 lead against Edmonds-Woodway in the District 1 3A semifinals at Snohomish High School on Wednesday, it looked like a sequence where the more experienced group would seize control of the game.

After all, Stanwood was defending its district title from last year, whereas Edmonds-Woodway — while the higher seeded team — had four freshmen in its starting five. Stanwood has been here before and succeeded. Edmonds-Woodway doesn’t know what it doesn’t know when it comes to playoff basketball.

Edmonds-Woodway coach Quinn Manning doesn’t want to hear any of that. Not when her team entered the halftime break trailing 30-23, and especially not when Stanwood increased its lead to 35-23 early in the third.

“That’s been the story all season, right? Is that we’re young, how do we respond,” Manning said. “Luckily, here we are, deep in (the district tournament), so we have experience.

“Basketball’s a game of runs, so you sometimes just have to ride it out. … I just have ultimate trust in the girls, and I think our coaching staff is really committed to— We don’t sub on mistakes. We’re not going to be reactive in times when we’re making mistakes or things are going wild.”

Things did go wild on Wednesday, as Edmonds-Woodway responded with a run of its own.

After turning a 35-23 deficit into a 36-35 lead with a 13-0 run in the third quarter, the No. 2 seed Warriors (20-3) pulled away for a 55-47 win against the No. 3 seed Spartans (18-5).

“I feel like (we were) just pushing pace and finding each other, like the open cuts and open passes,” said freshman Zaniyah Jones, who led Edmonds-Woodway with 15 points and nine rebounds. “Just finding each other and getting all those open shots that we could, and sealing the deal.”

In addition to Jones, senior Finley Wichers had 13 points and four rebounds. Freshman Madeline Kost played a key role off the bench, scoring 12 points and pulling down five rebounds. Led by Kost, the Warriors’ bench outscored Stanwood’s 17-0.

“She’s our secret weapon,” Manning said about Kost. “We said that nobody’s been able to scout her because she played JV all year. She’s been swinging, but frankly, I was waiting for her confidence. So a big props to her, because she came in with that freshman class, and I needed her to find her rhythm.”

For Stanwood, sophomore Dorothy Berrett and senior Presley Harris led with 12 points apiece, and senior Ellalee Wortham had 10 points and six rebounds.

The Spartans also received impact plays from senior Stella Berrett and sophomore Georgia Lenz in the midst of their 9-0 run to pull ahead in the second quarter, but the team ultimately didn’t do enough to finish it off.

“While we had the lead, we didn’t take advantage of a couple of good looks that could have extended a little bit,” Stanwood coach Dustin Swanson said. “But really, they just made some good plays, and when we had to get a couple of stops, we couldn’t.”

For the first time since 2019, Edmonds-Woodway is heading to the state tournament. It’s a feat Manning said she was ”hopeful” for entering the season, and she dared her young group to set that expectation in their preseason goal books.

It took some growth along the way to reach it.

Even in the first quarter on Wednesday, Jones got visibly frustrated after a string of turnovers and misses. Rather than let it affect the rest of her game, the young guard displayed poise down the stretch to will her team to victory.

Jones sparked the 13-0 run with a steal and a fast break layup, converting the ‘And-1’ to put the Warriors within single digits. Jones threw both arms down and let out a big yell in celebration after scoring through the foul.

“I feel like I tried to tell myself to calm down and (said) ‘You’re good,’” Jones said, reflecting on the first quarter. “Everybody makes mistakes. You just got to keep playing harder, and play harder for the team.”

Jones drew another foul while making a layup through contact, and while she missed the free throw, freshman Amelia Faber grabbed the rebound and drew a foul. She knocked down both foul shots to cut it to 35-30 with 3:43 left in the third.

Stanwood committed a turnover, then their fifth team foul on the next possession to send freshman Sloane Franks to the line, where she cut it to 35-32, and Kost scored the next four points to give Edmonds-Woodway the 36-35 lead two minutes before the fourth.

In the most pressing moments, the Warriors’ supposed weakness — youth — became its biggest strength.

“Tonight, you saw it: They’re not quite freshmen anymore,” Wichers said. “They’ve played like sophomores. They played with composure, and we needed it.”

The Spartans stopped the bleeding when Wortham gave her side the lead back with an ‘And-1’ off an inbound pass, and while Wichers tied it with a layup off passes from Franks and Jones, Dorothy Berrett hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Stanwood a 41-38 lead entering the final frame.

While the first two minutes of the fourth quarter came and went without either team scoring, the Warriors went on another run. Kost cut it to 41-40 with a nice post move with 5:25 to go, and Wichers nailed a 3 from the top of the key with 4:50 left to give Edmonds-Woodway a 43-41 lead.

The Warriors got another key producer off the bench, as junior Audrey Rothmier hit two straight jump shots to push the lead to 47-41 while Jones pulled down a couple of big rebounds on the defensive end.

“(Rothmier) came out and she hit two jumpers back-to-back, and it kind of sealed the deal for us,” Wichers said. “We knew that we had it when she hit those, and that was amazing. I mean, she has a great shot, great form. She knew when to take it and she did, and it was really beautiful to see.”

Stanwood cut it within three points after a couple steals and scores from Lenz, but Jones stepped up big in the paint with a shot off the glass to make it 52-47 with just over a minute left. That’s as close as it would get.

When the final buzzer went off and the teams lined up to shake hands, Wichers was visibly emotional. Jones wrapped her up in a hug. The senior dreamed of making it to the state tournament, and she finally did it as the leader both on and off the court.

“I guess I was in awe, shock,” Wichers said. “This was a goal that I had set for myself (in my) freshman year, and I’m so happy that I got to achieve it with this team.”

Said Jones: “I’m really happy for her because I know she’s been wanting to get to state for a long time, and now she finally got it. I’m just so happy that she gets to get in her senior year.”

The Spartans have one more opportunity to clinch a state tournament berth in a loser-out consolation game against Mount Vernon at Jackson High School on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Edmonds-Woodway will try to win the district title against top-seeded Snohomish, which they lost to 48-24 in the Wesco Crossover game on Feb. 6. With greater confidence and big-game experience, the Warriors will aim to flip that result at Jackson High School on Saturday.

“These kids are winners,” Manning said. “They’ve learned how to win.”