Archbishop Murphy overcomes slow start at Meadowdale
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, January 1, 2025
LYNNWOOD — Though it didn’t go according to plan, the Archbishop Murphy girls basketball team overcame early struggles to rally past Meadowdale Friday night.
“It was an ugly win, but it was a win, and so we’re gonna take it,” said Wildcats coach Ebany Herd, whose team improved to 9-1 overall and 5-0 in the Wesco 3A/2A South after a 68-58 win in Meadowdale’s gym. “We’re gonna run with it. We hit a little bit of adversity tonight. My kids didn’t come out ready to go. From the get-go, we went down (10-0), and we had to battle back.
“We talked about playing all four (quarters), and we did not do that tonight, but we had to figure it out — a little bit of adversity. We had to figure it out, stay together and get going.”
Herd also knew the importance of limiting Meadowdale’s post players. Audrey Lucas, a 6-foot physical presence, dominated early with six of her team-high 21 points during that 10-0 start. Sam Medina, a 6-foot-1 forward scored 10 points and also caused problems for Archbishop Murphy’s offense. Payton Fleishman added 11 for the Mavericks.
Herd’s guard-dominated team crawled back into contention with Meadowdale (5-5 overall, 2-1 league) during the remainder of the opening quarter, and the Wildcats took their first lead, 19-18, after consecutive layups by senior guard Taylor Cushing early in the second.
“I just think we were a little stagnant on offense,” said junior guard Brooke Blachly, who scored a game-high 25 points, of the first few minutes. “We weren’t moving, and then we didn’t execute what we’re supposed to do on defense. We didn’t jump the screens, we didn’t switch our screens. We just let them get whatever they wanted to.”
“I think once we called our timeout, we calmed ourselves down. We knew exactly what we’d been practicing for the last three or four days.”
Cushing scored 10 points for the Wildcats. Ava Marr, a senior guard added 13, hitting two of her three 3-point baskets in the fourth quarter.
Archbishop Murphy led the entire second quarter but didn’t pull away until the final two minutes of the fourth. The Mavericks tied the score four times in the second half but never led. Lucas got going again early in the fourth, grabbing two rebounds and putting them back up and in the bucket on consecutive possessions to knot the score at 51-51 in the first minute of the final stanza.
We’re an undersized team” said Blachly, who drilled four 3s against Meadowdale. “We’re very guard heavy, and I think we just have to realize that just because they have the size on us, doesn’t mean they have to be faster than us. That’s what we really pride ourselves on — no one is faster than us.”
The Wildcats used that speed to slowly pull away, and Blachly closed it out by going six-for-six from the free throw line in the final 41 seconds.
“I just thought they played really good defense,” Meadowdale coach Benson Sims said. “They finished. … They put their intentions behind their plays.”
The Mavericks proved to be a strong test for an Archbishop Murphy team that hopes to build on last season’s sixth-place finish in the Class 2A state tournament at the Tacoma Dome.
For Blachly, the goal this season is simple, even if the road may not be.
“Back to the Dome,” she said. “Place higher.”
Archbishop Murphy heads across the Puget Sound on Saturday for a contest at North Kitsap. Next up for Meadowdale is a game at Lynnwood on Wednesday.
