Snohomish girls get redemption in district semis

SNOHOMISH — Despite building up a lead as large as 11 in the first half of the District 1 3A semifinals against Meadowdale at Snohomish High School on Wednesday, Snohomish girls basketball couldn’t quite shake the underdog Meadowdale squad. By the time Meadowdale senior Mia Brockmeyer knocked down a deep 3-pointer with 4:25 left in the third quarter, Snohomish’s lead had shrunk to 35-29.

Throughout the entire district tournament so far, Snohomish has been running from the ghosts of last year. Despite entering the 2025 field as the top seed, Snohomish fell 47-23 to fourth-seeded Shorecrest in the semifinal before dropping the loser-out consolation game to this same Meadowdale program — then the No. 2 seed — 61-59 in overtime. The Wesco North 3A/2A co-champions had no state tournament berth to show for it.

It’s a new season and a new tournament, but those feelings from last year were still present against the same team that ended their season a year ago.

“I feel like the kids have been a little tight,” Snohomish coach Ken Roberts said. “I think you get teams that go (to state) the year before, and they’re just kind of used to it and playing. And then last year, we were shocked. … So I think our kids have been playing a little bit nervous, a little bit tonight through districts.”

As Meadowdale cut down on Snohomish’s lead, the nerves could have taken over and doomed the top seed yet again. Instead, Snohomish did what it has done all season: Lock down.

After Brockmeyer’s 3-pointer at the 4:25 mark of the third, Snohomish did not allow another point until there was 4:20 left in the game. By then, the No. 1 seed Panthers (17-6) had built up a big enough lead before ultimately closing out a 47-36 win against the No. 4 seed Mavericks (13-10). With the victory, Snohomish will return to the state tournament for the fourth time in five seasons.

Senior Siena Capelli led the way with 18 points, 11 rebounds and four steals, while junior Lola Rotondo posted 11 points and 10 rebounds. For the whole team, Wednesday’s win was a weight lifted.

“We all really, really want it this year,” Rotondo said. “Especially (with) what happened last year, it was nice to do that again.”

Brockmeyer led Meadowdale with 16 points in the loss. The Mavericks will look to claim a state berth of their own in a loser-out consolation game against No. 6 seed Shorecrest at Jackson High School on Saturday.

“They applied pressure at the rim, and man, second chances, rebounding (was our) Achilles heel,” Mavericks coach Benson Sims said. “But you got to make shots to win basketball games. There was moments we sat at that 25 to 30 point range for a while, and we couldn’t dial anything in. And sometimes the game’s like that.”

Once the Panthers got past the nerves of the situation, the game played out like most of theirs have this season, particularly from a defensive standpoint. Snohomish has allowed fewer than 40 points in each of the past nine games, holding opponents to fewer than 30 in six of them. After starting the season 1-5 while ravaged with injuries, the Panthers have won 16 of their past 17 games.

While the 8:05 stretch in the second half without allowing a point was the highlight against Meadowdale, the Panthers played stout defense all game. It took some time for the offense to warm up, as both teams missed each of their first two shots from the field, but Snohomish created some distance at the end of the first quarter when junior Lizzie Allyn banked in a 3-pointer from the top of the key to make it 11-7 with 80 seconds left in the frame before Capelli hit a layup 30 seconds later.

“I think our shooting wasn’t great in the first half, but our team does more than shooting, and I think our defense really picked it up for us,” Capelli said. “It let our offense just carry on through our defense, so it was good to get to that rhythm.”

Capelli hit a new gear in the second quarter, scoring 11 of her team’s 15 points in the frame. Despite being face-guarded, the 5-foot-8 wing bullied her way into the paint and created space to send shots in off the glass.

Capelli scored seven straight points for Snohomish in the final 2:35 before halftime, capping the run with a steal that led to an underhand layup going across the lane. That shot extended the lead to 28-17, but Meadowdale junior Lisa Sonko cut it to 28-19 going into the break with a putback layup.

“I think when your best player is your hardest worker, it helps. And (Capelli) is that,” Roberts said. “She’s our hardest worker in practice, and then it’s fun because then you get Lizzie Allyn and Kendall (Hammer). Lizzie and Siena go head-to-head, and Kendall gets in there. And so when your best players are your hardest workers, it makes it easy to get a team that’s willing to compete. And that’s what we’ve seen this year.”

Brockmeyer opened the third quarter with a 3 to cut it to 28-22, but Rotondo pulled down two offensive rebounds on the following possession before kicking out to Hammer for 3. The two sides traded shots until Snohomish forced Meadowdale into its eight-plus minute scoring drought that extended well into the fourth quarter.

Deploying a triangle-and-two defense, the Panthers managed to limit the Mavericks’ top scoring options while maintaining stability down the middle.

“I think our triangle-and-two is really hard to beat,” Capelli said. “Us face-guarding, our face-guarders know what to do and they know their job, and they know it well. And then our triangle is just really good at talking and communicating and just rotating. So I think that really helped us going into the second half.”

While the defense stood tall, Snohomish struggled with turnovers down the stretch of the third quarter. Roberts and the players attributed some of that to Meadowdale making defensive adjustments that were difficult to break through, but the Panthers are also reeling from the absence of freshman point guard Alaina Daclison, who sustained a torn ACL against Stanwood on Jan. 30, according to Roberts.

In her absence, the team has experimented with different entries that involve Allyn and Capelli taking the ball up the floor. It’s a work-in-progress, but Snohomish is still stacking up wins and adjusting on the fly.

“It’s going to pay off for us as we move forward once we get to the point where we’re not having to think anymore, which we were to that point with (Daclison) at point (guard),” Roberts said. “But right now, we’re not quite to that point. It’s not that (Capelli) and (Allyn) are doing anything wrong. It’s just we felt we need to change things to play to their strengths.”

By the time Brockmeyer broke Meadowdale’s scoring drought with a layup midway through the fourth quarter, Snohomish had a 43-31 lead. That would be the Mavericks’ final made field goal of the game, and after sending Snohomish to the line in a last-ditch effort to turn things around, the Panthers made most of their free throws and secured a 47-36 victory.

Snohomish will face the No. 2 seed Edmonds-Woodway in the District 1 3A Championship at Jackson High School on Saturday, with the game set to happen right after the Snohomish boys will take on Shorewood to try and claim their district title.

“It’s cool. Us and our boys team, we’re both going to the District Championship,” Rotondo said. “I think that both of us being there means a lot to Snohomish and to our community and everything.”

With a state berth locked up, Roberts is hoping the nervousness associated with last year will dissipate, and that the Panthers will bring their best against a Warriors team they defeated 48-24 in the Wesco Crossover game on Feb. 6.

“I’m looking forward to now it’s just the District Championship,” Roberts said. “We’re still going to state. Just go play. And I think — I hope — it loosens them up and gets them playing like we can.”