Young Vikings rise to challenge

Published 11:10 pm Wednesday, March 3, 2010

TACOMA — Leave it to the young guns.

Brooke Pahukoa, a lithe 5-foot-9 first-year guard for Lake Stevens, scored 10 second-half points and sophomore Abby Molstre grabbed 12 rebounds to help the Vikings overcome an injured starter and a feisty, but familiar Rogers (Puyallup) squad 52-47 in the first round of the 4A state basketball tournament Wednesday at the Tacoma Dome.

The Vikings (19-5 overall) played without junior Meghan Warbis and her team-leading seven rebounds per game because of a high-ankle sprain she suffered in the district championship versus Marysville-Pilchuck. With Warbis out, Lake Stevens relied on bench scoring and timely free-throw shooting for a second-half comeback against Rogers (18-10).

Pahukoa, who averages 9.8 points per game for the 4A District 1 champion Vikings, scored eight points in the third quarter as Lake Stevens erased a six-point, halftime deficit against the Rams — a team the Vikings defeated 56-44 in a Dec. 28 non-conference game.

“It’s part of the old adage with freshman — they just play — they don’t think about the enormity of the moment,” Lake Stevens head coach Randall Edens said referring to Pahukoa. “At the same time, there was a little jitters early on with her and then she settled down when she got a couple baskets to go.

“We just ask her to go be an athlete and she does that really well and she was big for us in the second half.”

The freshman scored two points in the first half when Lake Stevens squandered an early 12-6 lead and picked up three personal fouls, but she said nerves weren’t a main concern.

“I wasn’t (nervous),” said Pahukoa, who finished with three steals, two rebounds and shot 6-for-9 (66 percent) from the field. “I was so excited, I think that nervousness kind of passed over me, I was wanting to get out there and win and get it over with.”

Abby Molstre, a Vikings sophomore, hauled in a game-high 12 rebounds, including seven offensive boards, as Warbis’ replacement in the starting lineup.

Senior Stephanie Shumacher added 11 points and Kayla Bostwick scored seven, making five of six free throws in the fourth quarter as Lake Stevens converted 14 of 19 free throws in the final frame.

Molstre, a 5-8 forward who scored eight points, helped keep the Rogers’ duo of Nichole Jones (18.3 points, 6.7 rebounds per game) and wing Sherelle Williams (11.5 points) from getting second-chance opportunities.

Jones, the co-MVP of the South Puget Sound League South Division, shot 5-for-11 from the field and scored 15 points. Williams, an SPSL South Division first-team pick, finished with a game-high 19 points.

Rogers grabbed a lead at the end of the first quarter, but 15 second-half turnovers and an overaggressive defense (28 team fouls) hurt the Rams, who shot 40 percent from the field.

“It was an advantage,” Pahukoa said of Lake Stevens’ familiarity with Rogers. “But, a lot of us didn’t want to overlook it and so we tried not to think that we played them before.

“There was the talk in the beginning, ‘Oh, we beat them before, we can do this,’ and then it was a totally different game, everything went away, we knew that … everything would be different.”

The win allows Warbis, who averages 8.2 points and seven rebounds, to get a few more hours of extra rest before today’s 3:30 p.m. quarterfinal contest against Issaquah.

A loss would have meant another 9 a.m. game.

“She’s the core of our team. We have other kids that score for us and she would love to score for us, but at the same time she does so many things you really don’t see, to be honest, and that’s a big part of what we do,” Edens said of Warbis. “We were hoping if we could kind of sneak through today and not have to play her, we would give her another 16 hours to heal up and hopefully give it a go tomorrow.”

At Tacoma Dome

Lake Stevens1291318—52

Rogers1314812 —47

Lake Stevens — Goodard 3, Puha 0, Peterson 2, Bostwick 7, Corrine Burke 4, Schumacher 11, Molstre 8, Brooke Pahukoa 12, Wilson 5. Rogers (Puyallup) — Asher 3, Hammer 0, Sauders 0, Cox 6, Williams 19, Jones 15, Greer 2, Van Den Berg 2, Perez 0. 3-pointers — Goodard 1, Schumacher 2, Asher 1. Records — Lake Stevens 19-5 overall. Rogers (Pullayup) 18-10.