Prep girls basketball: Tulalip Heritage 54, Mary M. Knight 42

EVERETT — One year after winning just two games, the Tulalip Heritage girls basketball team is on to the 1B state quarterfinals.

The Hawks defeated Mary M. Knight 54-42 in a state regional game on Saturday to punch their ticket to Spokane.

“It’s a good experience,” Tulalip Heritage coach Cyrus Fryberg said. “We try not to think about last year and just go on. It’s really special to the girls that were here last year too.”

As she has many times this season, senior Adiya Jones led the Hawks with 26 points and 15 rebounds. No other Tulalip Heritage player scored more than 9 points.

“It hard to predict what she’s really going to do from game to game, but when it’s really all on her back we ride her,” Fryberg said. “That’s what we did today. We set up plays for just her so we could get the ball in her hands. …I just kind of set her up and gave her the ball and let her go to work.”

The Hawks led by just two after the first quarter, but used a 9-0 run at the start of the second quarter to extend their lead to double digits. The Owls got to within nine at the end of the third quarter, but again the Hawks responded with a run of their own. Their 8-0 run to start the fourth quarter put the game away.

“Basketball is a game of runs,” Fryberg said. “You want to put in a couple of big runs throughout the game. If you don’t then you’re in trouble. We just put those ones together by playing smart and defensively we locked them down and we were forcing them to shoot it from the outside.

“We just got it done.”

At Everett Community College

Mary M. Knight127815—42

T. Heritage1415718—54

Mary M. Knight—Jaycee Valley 7, Kaylee Sowle 12, Mary Koonrad 17, Lillian Crawford 0, Angela Diggle 0, Jadyn Davidson 6. Tulalip Heritage—Kaenishia Herrera 0, Myrna Red Leaf 0, Adiya Jones 26, Aliya Jones 9, Michelle Iukes 0, Keryn Parks 9, Desirae Williams 4, Leondra Keeline 0, Cyena Fryberg 6. Records—Mary M. Knight 15-7 overall. Tulalip Heritage 23-1.21