EVERETT — A day after its 17-game winning streak was snapped, the Archbishop Thomas Murphy girls basketball team regrouped and went on to beat Coupeville in a key Northwest 1A League matchup.
Three players scored in double figures to lead the Wildcats past the Wolves 48-41 Tuesday night at Archbishop Murphy High School.
The victory meant that the Wildcats claimed the league title and secured the No. 1 seed to the Tri-district tournament.
“This was an important game,” said Archbishop Murphy coach Bill Kelley. “Otherwise you’d have a showdown with King’s in the first round. You’d much rather have that in the championship round.”
Sophomore center Lisa Coate scored 19 points for the Wildcats. Senior co-captains Ellie Frahm and Jamie Lyons added 11 and 10 points, respectively.
“We’ve been getting two, three, four and even five people in double figures recently,” Kelley said. “We’re spreading it around. Ellie Frahm has really stepped up. She’s been in double figures almost every game recently and that really helps. Usually at least one or two of our guards are in double figures.
“That makes it a lot tougher to defend. We don’t have to go to Lisa all the time, but it’s sure nice to have her.”
Archbishop Murphy was coming off a 57-54 loss to Orcas Island on Monday. The Vikings outscored the Wildcats 23-10 in the fourth quarter.
As a result of the loss that meant the winner of Tuesday’s night game would claim the league championship.
“We all knew we needed to win and it was going to be tough,” Lyons said. “It means a lot, especially being a senior, winning the league title.”
Archbishop Murphy extended its 12-10 first quarter advantage to 27-18 at halftime. The Wolves cut the lead to 30-25 midway through the third quarter before the Wildcats closed with an 8-2 run to extend their lead to 38-27.
“We just stepped up our defense and we knew that we just needed to push it really hard and just go at them with all we had,” Lyons said. “Our defense obviously is really strong and so we wanted to really push that.”
The last time the two teams met Coupeville guards had success driving the key. Kelley wanted to stop that this time around.
“We really concentrated on team help,” he said. “Kat Taylor had a real stretch for us defensively … she really helped out the team on defense.”
The Wildcats led by double digits for most of the fourth quarter before Coupeville mounted a late rally. A putback basket by junior guard Taniel Lamb cut the lead to 46-38 with 51.7 seconds remaining in the game. Lamb was fouled on the shot but missed the free throw. The Wolves grabbed the rebound and had two putback attempts bounce off the rim before Archbishop Murphy finally controlled the ball.
Archbishop Murphy will play the No. 3 seed out of District 3 at 8 p.m. Feb. 21 at Mountlake Terrace High School.
The Wildcats have only a pair of seniors on the roster with the majority of the roster having little to no playoff experience.
“I think Ellie and I as captains are really going to try and pull the girls together and keep them calm,” Lyons said. NOTES
ATM BOYS CLAIM TITLE: Luke Hagel scored a game-high 16 points to lead the Archbishop Murphy boys basketball team to a 61-45 victory over Coupeville Tuesday night. Teammate Wes Taylor added 14 points.
With the victory, the Wildcats clinched the Northwest 1A League title and earned the No. 1 seed to next week’s Tri-district playoffs.
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