Snohomish girls survive upset bid, advance to face Arlington

TACOMA — Ella Gallatin didn’t want her high school career to end.

The Snohomish senior and four-year starter came through in the clutch to make sure it didn’t.

And now, a rematch with league rival Arlington awaits.

Gallatin converted a tough go-ahead layup and added a key late rebound and free throws to lift the No. 5-seeded Snohomish girls basketball team to a 46-44 win over No. 12 seed Bonney Lake in a Class 3A Hardwood Classic first-round game Wednesday night in the Tacoma Dome.

“We didn’t want this to be our last game, so we gave it our all,” Gallatin said. “… I want to stay here for the rest of the weekend.”

With the victory, Snohomish (16-4) set up an all-Wesco state quarterfinal showdown against No. 3 seed Arlington at 7:15 p.m. Thursday. It will be a rematch of Arlington’s 57-44 regular-season win over Snohomish on Jan. 24.

“I’m really excited,” Gallatin said.

The rematch almost didn’t happen.

After trailing by 12 points late in the third quarter, Bonney Lake (17-6) rallied to tie the game at 42-all with just under 3 minutes to play.

But with Snohomish in danger of a first-round upset loss, Gallatin saved her team’s season.

With just over a minute remaining, Gallatin tossed the ball to freshman teammate Tyler Gildersleeve-Stiles in the high post and immediately got the ball back while cutting to the hoop on a give-and-go.

Gallatin, an Eastern Washington University-bound senior guard, then fought through a foul in the paint and converted a tough basket to give Snohomish a 44-42 edge with 1:10 remaining.

“She came through when we needed her,” Snohomish coach Ken Roberts said.

Gallatin had another big sequence later on.

With her team still clinging to a two-point lead with less than 30 seconds to go, Gallatin grabbed a key rebound off a missed Snohomish free throw and was fouled. She followed by sinking a pair of one-and-one free throws, which stretched the margin to 46-42 with 23.1 seconds remaining and helped seal the victory.

“That was a big rebound,” Roberts said.

Gallatin finished just 4 of 17 from the field on an unusually tough night for her offensively. But she still managed to fill the stat sheet with 14 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and four steals.

“That’s the great thing about her — she got a ton of tips and steals and rebounds still,” Roberts said.

Snohomish shut down Bonney Lake early on and held a 37-25 lead late in the third quarter.

But 6-foot-1 sophomore center Jazmyn Shipp caught fire for Bonney Lake in the second half, scoring 21 of her game-high 27 points in the final two quarters.

And as Shipp took over in the paint, Snohomish spent much of the second half coughing up the ball and struggling to score. Snohomish had 17 second-half turnovers and just 18 second-half points.

Bonney Lake capitalized, using a 17-5 run to tie the game. It was starting to become reminiscent of Snohomish’s overtime state regional loss to No. 4 seed Lake Washington last Friday, when the Panthers blew a 10-point lead in the final two minutes of regulation.

“Our whole fourth quarter today was like the last two minutes of Lake Washington,” Roberts said. “Poor fundamentals, not catching the ball, wanting to catch and dribble first thing instead of catching and evaluating. … Just bad basketball.

“(Bonney Lake) worked hard,” he added. “But we just did some things at the end that let them back in it.”

But with Gallatin’s late heroics, Snohomish survived and extended its season.

Junior guard Jada Andresen added 14 points and senior guard Cheyenne Rodgers chipped in nine points for Snohomish, which shot just 29.1% from the field and finished with 24 turnovers.

Roberts said his team will have to be much better against Arlington, which has raced to a 19-2 record behind its full-court press and high-scoring attack.

“If you have 24 turnovers against a team that doesn’t even press you, you better be a lot better tomorrow,” Roberts said. “We’re gonna need to be, and we’re capable of it. We’ve been better. But our kids need to quit playing nervous and need to just go play basketball.”