SEATTLE – After more than three months of victories, the Meadowdale girls basketball team finally ran into a force it couldn’t handle.
Meadowdale beat its first 26 opponents of the season, but foe No. 27, Auburn Riverside, was simply too quick, too deep and too relentless.
Despite doing a decent job against Auburn Riverside’s highly touted full-court press, Meadowdale lost 52-42 against the Ravens Friday in a Class 3A state tournament semifinal at Bank of America Arena.
Senior Stephanie Wilber shot just 5-for-17 from the field but scored 15 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for Auburn Riverside (26-2), which used a 19-6 first-half spurt to gain control and upend Meadowdale (26-1).
Despite its previously unblemished record, many considered Meadowdale an underdog in the clash with Auburn Riverside, which tied its second-lowest scoring output of the season but still earned its 17th straight victory.
Meadowdale coach Dan Taylor said his team would either lose or “shock the world.” Even in defeat, he remained upbeat.
“I told the girls I’m proud of them. You can’t be disappointed,” Taylor said afterward.
Senior guard Eryn Jones scored a game-high 19 points for Meadowdale, which committed 22 turnovers. About one-fourth of those miscues came near its own basket against the press.
“I thought we did a good job, honestly,” Taylor said.
“A lot of our turnovers were just in the (opposite) half-court, making poor decisions,” he added. “Maybe nerves set in again because there’s a lot at stake. But I appreciate the girls making the adjustment because that was … the quickest team we’ve played all season.”
“I was actually surprised with their press because it seemed like we handled it fairly well,” Meadowdale’s Marelle Moehrle said. “But they’re all good girls on that team, and they finish.”
Meadowdale, which got a 10-point contribution from sophomore guard Hanna Fjortoft, twice got within five points in the third quarter but was unable to get any closer.
Auburn Riverside had 11 more rebounds than Meadowdale and shot a bit better from the field (40.0 percent to 33.3 percent).
Poor defensive rebounding killed Meadowdale, Moehrle said. It partially stemmed from foul trouble: Mavs centers Cassie Kosmides and Anna Molitor both were whistled for three first-half fouls and spent significant time on the bench.
“(Auburn Riverside) kept getting so many second-chance shots, which I think hurt us in the end. A lot of times they were missing that first shot. We were making them take a hard shot, and then they’d get the rebound and get an easy layin.”
Meadowdale plays in the third/sixth-place game at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Bank of America Arena. Its opponent is West Valley of Yakima (16-13), which lost against Chief Sealth in the other semifinal.
Auburn Riverside fell behind by four points in the opening minutes but it used a 19-6 burst to take a 20-11 lead. Meadowdale clamped down on defense and cut the deficit to four. But the Ravens forced a flurry of turnovers, got back-to-back 3-pointers from Nichole Jackson (12 points total, all on 3s), and closed the half with an 8-3 spurt.
Jackson said she “expected a little bit more” of a challenge from Meadowdale but was impressed with the Mavs’ preparation.
“They did a pretty good job handling the press,” said Jackson, a sophomore point guard. “I just feel they watched a lot of film and they were ready.”
Jones, who shot 6-for-11 from the field and scored 12 points in the second half, banked in a driving layin to cut it to 45-38 with 3:35 to go. Wilber, an Arizona State University recruit, responded with an inside bucket for Auburn Riverside on an assist from her teammate, Katie Grad, who made a steal before feeding Wilber. Meadowdale managed just four points the rest of the way.
Meadowdale shot poorly, especially from the perimeter. It was 14-for-42 from the field, 3-for-13 on 3s. Moerhle, who was 0-for-10 from the field and 0-for-6 on 3s, said she was absolutely drained.
“My legs were shot,” she said. “I don’t know what it was, but I felt like they were lead.” Today, with a third-place trophy as motivation, Moehrle and the Mavs get one more chance to channel some energy.
At Bank of America Arena
Auburn Riverside13151311-52
Meadowdale9101310-42
Auburn Riverside-Wetmore 6, Amojo 14, Grad 3, Hagerty 2, Jackson 12, Wilber 15. Meadowdale-Coronacion 7, Jones 19, Moehrle 2, H. Fjortoft 10, Molitor 2, Kosmides 2. 3-point goals-Jackson 4, Coronacion 1, Jones 1, H. Fjortoft 1. Records-Auburn Riverside 26-2 overall. Meadowdale 26-1.
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