MUKILTEO — Doug Montzingo glanced at the Kamiak High School gymnasium scoreboard as he exited the floor at halftime of his team’s Northwest District 4A girls basketball playoff game on Wednesday and realized things could have been worse.
Yes, his Kamiak team had missed its first 15 shots. They had stumbled into the postseason by losing four of five and were playing a streaking Marysville-Pilchuck team that had won nine of 11. They couldn’t score and were getting hammered on the boards. All signs — except for the scoreboard — firmly pointed Kamiak toward the loser’s bracket.
Though they bumbled and stumbled through the first half, somehow the Knights were down by only 10 points thanks mostly to their defense.
"We were glad to still be there," Montzingo said.
When the game ended, the scoreboard looked even better to Montzingo displaying Kamiak’s 40-31 victory.
"Guts and heart," said Montzingo, whose team will play Lake Stevens — 40-32 upset victors over Monroe — at Marysville-Pilchuck High School at 8 p.m. on Saturday. "We didn’t shoot very well. They scored 10 points in the second half and we scored 11 in the first half.
"They just worked through it. They are good kids and they wanted this game."
Which is why Kamiak trailed only 21-11 despite missing 23 of 28 first-half shot attempts.
"That’s when your defense needs to get picked up," said junior forward Ashley Vick, who equaled teammate Marci Garski’s team highs of 12 points and eight rebounds. "We came back in the second half and started shooting and hitting stuff. But, our defense is what won it."
Defense it nice and all, but a few points are necessary to gain a victory. Vick provided the biggest three points of the game when she hit a 3-point shot — only the second of the game by either team — to give Kamiak a 34-29 cushion with 1:21 remaining. On a night when defense ruled, a five-point cushion seemed insurmountable.
"I felt very relieved," said Montzingo of Vick’s big shot. "Much better than a two-point lead. She’s stepped up with those kinds of shots, and she was due."
Down 23-13 early in the third quarter, Kamiak (13-8) maintained its defensive pressure while rediscovering offense. The Knights rattled off 21 of the game’s next 27 points capped by five straight points from Vick.
Marysville-Pilchuck’s Serresa Stovall put back in a teammate’s miss to cut her team’s deficit to three points, but the Knights sealed their victory by making six straight free throws in the final 22 seconds.
The Tommies, who rebounded from a 1-5 start in the Western Conference North Division to earn a No. 3 seed, will play Monroe on Saturday at M-P in a loser-out game.
Kamiak trailed only 9-2 after the first quarter despite missing its first 15 shots and finishing the quarter one for 19.
The Knights closed the gap to 9-6, but M-P used a 12-5 crawl to take a 21-11 halftime lead. Four Tommies — Carrie Bailey, Lindsey Meacham, Nikki Jordan and Sarah Gribler each recorded five or more rebounds in the first half. Stovall pulled down four to contribute to Marysville-Pilchuck’s 30-22 edge on the boards in a half featuring plenty of rebounding opportunities. Bailey finished the game with nine boards while Meacham and Jordan each grabbed eight rebounds.
The two teams combined to shoot 22.4 percent in the half, including M-P’s 8 of 30 shooting from the field. M-P made five of 28 shots in the second half.
Jordan contributed eight points and six rebounds in the first half. Kamiak’s Marci Garski recorded four points and four rebounds in the half despite missing the final 7:18 after picking up her third foul.
Marysville-Pilchuck—Dunbar 4, Bailey 5, Meacham 2, Zamora 6, Jordan 8, Stovall 2, Gribler 4. Kamiak—Chittick 7, Garski 12, Ghassemieh 5, Vick 12, Nguyen 2, Bozek 2. 3-point goals—Dunbar 1, Vick 1. Records—M-P 13-8. Kamiak 13-8. |
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