TACOMA — Lake Stevens decided to rally around an old cliche while preparing for its opening game of the girls Class 4A state tournament.
In each of the past two seasons, the Vikings had their state tournaments ended by Mount Tahoma, which happened to be Lake Stevens’ first-round opponent Wednesday.
“We used that old cliche, the third time’s a charm,” Lake Stevens coach Randy Edens said. “It allowed us to relax, because the last two years we’ve seen them in elimination games and that adds a little more pressure to it. This time through, we knew we’d be playing for sure the next day, so why not go out and take care of it.”
Take care of it the Vikings did, avenging two years of elimination with a resounding 67-43 win over the Thunderbirds in the tournament’s opening game.
The fourth-ranked Vikings (22-2) will have their hands full in today’s 3:30 p.m. quarterfinal against second-ranked Prairie (19-3), which features McDonald’s All-American Ashley Corral.
Edens said his team was a little “glassy-eyed” when it arrived at the Tacoma Dome for the 9 a.m. tip off, but if the Vikings were struggling to wake up, they certainly didn’t play like it.
After Mount Tahoma (21-6) took a 1-0 lead with a free-throw, Lake Stevens went on a 16-0 run and never looked back. With 2 minutes, 25 seconds left in the first quarter, the Thunderbirds finally recorded their first field goal, and were held to just two in the quarter as Lake Stevens built a 20-5 lead.
Lake Stevens maintained that 15-point lead at halftime having out-shot Mount Tahoma 40 percent to 19.4 percent. The Vikings also took advantage of Mount Tahoma’s early foul trouble, making 10 of 15 first-half free-throw attempts.
“We played them the last two years, and in both games, they made runs and we made runs, and we ended up ahead at the end of the game,” said Mount Tahoma coach Calvin McHenry. “This time, we didn’t make the run. We got into foul trouble early, we couldn’t hit our shots early, and we never really got back into the flow of the game.”
Both teams came into the tournament with plenty of state experience, and the Vikings also came south with revenge on their minds.
“That was a huge part,” said senior guard Mary Ochiltree, who scored 14 of her 18 points in the first half. “And beating them by so much, it just feels so good. I feel like we were the ones that came out and played with heart.”
The Thunderbirds made defensive adjustments in the second half to slow Ochiltree and held her to just four points, but Alona Personius picked up where Ochiltree left off. Personius, a senior guard, scored 13 of her career-high 23 in the second half, and finished the game with nine rebounds.
Personius and Ochiltree shot better than 50 percent, and the Vikings shot 38.2 percent for the game. Mount Tahoma, on the other hand, made just 19.2 percent of its shots and was two for 28 on 3-point attempts. The Thunderbirds’ leading scorer, Shauneice Samms, was held to just four points. Carrie Ojeda had 16 to lead Mount Tahoma.
“We shot the ball really well,” said Edens. “Usually the first day, you see a lot of poor shooting. We talked about that, we talked about how we needed to get to the basket as a priority. We were able to get to the free throw line and settle down. We had a lot of contributions and handled their pressure great. That was the focus all week.”
At Tacoma
Lake Stevens20171218—67
Mount Tahoma5171011—43
Mount Tahoma — Ojeda 16, Mamea 7, Sorrell 6, Magalei 5, Samms 4, Scott 4, Barrett 1, Johnson, Hunter, Sok, Williams, Hudson. Lake Stevens — Personius 23, Ochiltree 18, Gallagher 7, Brittany Tri 6, Warbis 5, Burke 2, Greene 2, Tate 2, Ziskovsky 2, Bostwick, Goddard, Schumacher. 3-pointers — Mamea 1, Magalei 1, Ochiltree 1, Personius 3.
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