EVERETT — When the Snohomish girls basketball team opened the season by losing its first three games, there likely wasn’t many people that thought they would be district champions.
However, with Thursday’s dominant 57-35 victory over Lake Stevens in the 4A District 1 championship game, the championship trophy resides in Snohomish.
“We scheduled a really good non-league schedule,” Snohomish head coach Ken Roberts said. “If you look at Lynnwood, Glacier Peak and Arlington and the teams in Spokane. We were 1-5 non-league, but it made us better. This whole year was focused on this moment for us.”
It showed on the court.
The Panthers seized control in the first quarter, opening the game with a 10-0 run. The Vikings answered back with a 10-0 run to tie the score, but Snohomish refocused and took control of the game for good.
“You’re going to expect runs from both teams,” Roberts said. “We’re both good. We just didn’t panic when they made theirs.”
With the leading scorers for both teams — Emily Vandegrift for Lake Stevens and Madeline Smith for Snohomish — on the bench for much of the first half in foul trouble, both teams were forced to adjust.
The Panthers were able to do it a little bit better.
Lake Stevens managed just six points in the second quarter and finished the first half with 17. Snohomish didn’t fare much better, but good enough to build a 25-17 lead at the break. Junior Ellie Flitsch stepped up in Smith’s absence for the Panthers.
“The key, I thought, in the game was when Maddie Smith was out and Ellie Flitsch went in and scored a couple of times and we were able to keep the lead,” Roberts said. “That was huge for us because we haven’t been able to do that this year.”
Though his team was down, Lake Stevens head coach Randall Edens felt good about his team’s chances going into the second half. But the Vikings’ offense continued to struggle.
“Being down eight with everything that had happened, at half, we felt pretty good about it all things considered,” Edens said. “(The Panthers) got a couple of baskets early and we missed an inordinate amount of layups and free-throw shooting for us was really poor. That’s the difference.”
The Panthers built their lead in the third quarter and protected it in the fourth. On each offensive possession in the final quarter they methodically ran clock and came up with several key offensive rebounds to prolong possessions.
“We were able to run off about 50 seconds (on several possessions) and we were able to get some buckets afterwards a few times — great offensive rebounding,” Roberts said. “We blocked out well and didn’t give them any second-chance points and that was huge too.”
Madison Pollock led the Panthers in scoring with 16 points. Smith added 15.
The real story of the game was the Panthers’ defense, which allowed a total of just 35 points and held Vandegrift to five.
“Our kids did a really good job of following the gameplan,” Roberts said. “The nice thing about having more days to prepare is that you can kind of go through some sets and you can come up with a plan. The key was, the kids really paid attention in practice this week. I thought we grew up.”
Unlike previous years, getting to the district championship didn’t guarantee both teams a trip to regionals. With the victory, the Panthers guaranteed themselves a trip to the state regional round. Lake Stevens is yet to clinch. The Vikings play Monroe at noon on Saturday at Everett Community College. The winner is on to regionals with the district’s No. 2 seed, while the loser’s season will be over.
“That’s going to be the hardest part,” Edens said. “With the district tournament changing format it’s going to be a little bit unique for all of us, but we’ve had success with (loser-out) games before and we get to see another day and that’s kind of how we have to approach it.”
At Everett Community College
Snohomish 15 10 17 15 —57
Lake Stevens 11 6 11 7 —35
Snohomish—Katie Brandvold 10, Morgan Marshall 2, Morgan Loberg 0, Emily Preach 0, Darian Rielly 0, Shaylee Harwood 4, Madison Pollock 16, Madeline Smith 15, Ireland Baus 0, Bernadette Beeman 2, Cassidy McGee 0, Ellie Flitsch 8. Lake Stevens—Alex Briggs 6, Emma Smith 0, Kristen Glick 3, Anna Lundquist 1, Riley O’Toole 0, Anna Dominick 0, Ashley Richardson 2, Marissa Walton 2, Emily Vandegrift 5, Kylee Griffen 10, Hailey Wilson 6, Katie Saylor 0. 3-point goals—Brandvold 1, Pollock 2, Briggs 2. Records—Snohomish 14-8 overall, Lake Stevens 18-4.
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