LAKE STEVENS — After trailing for most of three quarters, the Lake Stevens girls basketball team scored the first seven points of the final period for a lead it never lost.
And even though the Vikings still had some white-knuckle moments down the stretch, they held on for a 55-52 victory over rival Monroe on Wednesday night in a showdown of two top Wesco 4A teams.
The outcome clinches at least a share of the Wesco title for Lake Stevens, which improved its league mark to 11-1, 16-2 overall. The young Vikings, who have just two varsity seniors, lead Monroe and Snohomish by two games in the conference standings with two games to play.
“Our last league title was 2012,” said Lake Stevens coach Randall Edens, “so for this group to do that for as young as we are, I’m pumped. I want our young kids to go through moments like this. I want them to have that success. I want them to feel that joy, that exhilaration.”
Lake Stevens got all but two of its points from four players — senior forward Emily Vandegrift, senior guard Alex Briggs, freshman forward Kylee Griffen and junior forward Hailey Wilson. The 6-foot-1 Vandegrift was particularly big for the Vikings, leading all scorers with 19 points.
“She’s the hub of what we do,” Edens said. “Without her we’re a totally different team. The girls feed off of her energy and her relentlessness and just her passion for the game. She’s a classic lead-by-example player, and if we could embody her in all of our players … that’s what we’d want.”
Briggs, meanwhile, had just three field goals, but they were all 3-pointers at pivotal times. The first came in the second quarter, cutting a six-point Monroe lead in half, and the other two came in the fourth as the Vikings finally went on top to stay.
Early in the game, Edens said, “I thought early we were a little awestruck and on our heels. … But Alex and Emily have been through some big moments, so we try to lean on them and say, ‘Hey, we need you to lead by example and kind of help these guys through, one moment at a time, one play at a time.’ And I thought for the most part they did a really good job.”
Griffen, a first-year player with a lot of promise, contributed 17 points while Wilson chipped in eight.
In the game’s final frantic moments, both teams struggled at the offensive end. Neither team scored a field goal over the last 31/2 minutes until Monroe’s Kylee Ferreira launched a 3-pointer from near midcourt that swished at the game-ending buzzer.
The Bearcats had several chances to cut into Lake Stevens’ lead down the stretch, but were undone by a succession of missed shots and turnovers. The Vikings, meanwhile, had their opportunities at the free-throw line in the closing moments, but missed five attempts in a row — including twice on the first try of a one-and-one — before Griffen finally converted once with four seconds remaining.
“I wish we would’ve shot some free throws a little bit better down the stretch,” Edens said. “We’re way better than that. But that also shows our youth and inexperience in those kind of moments.”
Monroe, which had given the Vikings their only league loss earlier this season, was led by Ferreira’s 16 points, including four 3-pointers.
At Lake Stevens H.S.
Monroe 14 14 13 11 —52
Lake Stevens 8 16 17 14 —55
Monroe—Kylee Ferreira 16, Corrina Roppo 0, Jadynn Alexander 8, Emily Donnelly 7, Hannah Drivstuen 4, Alex Alexander 6, Chelsea Santjer 4, Amber Van Brunt 6, Loryn Moore 1. Lake Stevens—Alex Briggs 9, Emma Smith 0, Kristen Glick 0, Anna Dominick 2, Ashley Richardson 0, Emily Vandegrift 19, Kylee Griffen 17, Hailey Wilson 8. 3-point goals—Ferreira 4, Briggs 3. Records—Monroe 9-3 league, 13-5 overall. Lake Stevens 11-1, 16-2.
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