EDMONDS — Snohomish wanted to work the low post and use its height advantage. Edmonds-Woodway wanted to spread the Panthers out and launch 3s.
Snohomish coach Ken Roberts described the aftermath.
“It was both teams fighting to get the game to be played the way they like,” Roberts said. “We had to chase them off the 3-point line, and they had to do something to stop our bigs. Neither one did a great job of doing that. Both teams struggled to stop the other team’s strength, and both teams did a great job of playing to their strengths.”
In a premiere game between two of Snohomish County’s best, Kyra Beckman and the Panthers’ size and strength outlasted Edmonds-Woodway’s impressive 3-point exhibition.
As much as Snohomish and Edmonds-Woodway struggled to stop each other, a defensive play by Panthers guard Kinslee Gallatin sealed the game.
Trailing by two with 5 seconds to go, Edmonds-Woodway tried to in-bounds a pass at midcourt, but Gallatin knocked the ball out of Warriors guard AJ Martineau’s hands. In a scramble to recover possession, the ball deflected off Martineau and out of bounds, essentially sealing Snohomish’s 66-64 thrilling Wesco 3A win over Edmonds-Woodway on Friday night at Edmonds-Woodway High School.
Both teams entered the game undefeated in conference play. The win sent Snohomish (12-2, 6-0 Wesco 3A) and Shorecrest into a tie for the league lead, and the loss snapped Edmonds-Woodway’s 11-game win streak.
The Warriors (12-2, 5-1), who are known for their confident 3-point shooting, drilled 14 3-pointers — two off their season high. Nine of the triples came during the second half, but seemingly no amount of 3s could make up for the dominance of Beckman inside.
The 6-foot-2 junior forward finished with 26 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks. She faced double teams and triple teams, but the undersized Warriors had no solution.
“We couldn’t stop Kyra,” Edmonds-Woodway coach Jon Rasmussen said. “She is tough inside. If she got it low, we couldn’t stop her.”
Nothing illustrated Beckman’s dominance more than a offensive sequence with 3:00 to play in the fourth quarter. Edmonds-Woodway’s Maddie McMahon had just scored to cut Snohomish’s lead to 58-55 when Beckman got the ball in the post. She missed, got the rebound, missed, got the rebound and on her third shot attempt was fouled and made the layup before converting the three-point play.
“Our game plan was, ‘Let’s get it down to the post, and if they double team, kick it out to our guards to shoot.’” Beckman said. “There was a size difference, and we knew we could take them down in the post area.”
Edmonds-Woodway’s best answer for Beckman was its own offense, and 3-pointers came early and often.
The Warriors dug themselves into a 32-23 halftime hole, but with their shooting ability, Rasmussen said, his team knew them could easily get back in the game.
Edmonds-Woodway did just that, thanks in large part to Ingrid Fosberg, who scored all of her nine points on 3s in the first 3:40 of the second half to trim the Warriors’ deficit to 34-32.
Snohomish then used a 7-0 run to push the lead back to 41-32 before the Warriors closed the gap to 50-46 by the end of third quarter.
“They shot a lot of 3s, and we came back and put it to them,” Beckman said. “This game was really fun.”
A 3-pointer from Mia Dikenson, who scored a team-high 12 points, with 2:34 to play in the fourth cut Snohomish’s lead to 61-58, but two critical buckets down the stretch from Panthers forward Morgan Marshall prevented a Warriors comeback.
A triple from Martineau with 1:25 to go trimmed Edmonds-Woodway’s deficit to 66-64, but neither team managed to score the rest of the way.
“The key tonight was we had some other kids make outside shots,” Roberts said. “It was a great midseason test for both us to see where we are at.”
Rebekah Dasalla-Good and Adrienne Poling each scored 10 points for Edmonds-Woodway, and Gallatin had nine for the Panthers.
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