YAKIMA — As Sara Mosiman led the King’s Knights out of the locker room before the Class 2A state title game, she announced, “Let’s do it.”
And the Knights did.
Top-ranked King’s (26-2) walloped fifth-ranked Lynden Christian (24-3) 49-27 March 11 to complete a dominant run through the state tournament at the Yakima SunDome.
The always-confident Knights were on their game, making timely shots, crisp passes, blocking shots and getting defensive stops. They made it seem so easy, in fact, that for much of the final, the mesmerized crowd was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
The Knights were led by Mosiman, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player for the second year in a row, who scored a game-high 17 points and snagged nine rebounds.
“We were so antsy to get out here and finally we got out here and we were fired up, ready to play and we just had an awesome time,” Mosiman said. “This year has been one of the greatest years I’ve ever had in my whole high school career. The coaches are amazing. I’ll never forget them. The players, teammates, we have the right tools, it all just fit.”
The win earned the King’s girls back-to-back titles and their third championship in school history, the first coming in 1997 in Class 1A. The Knights took home a trophy for the sixth consecutive season.
The title game was a rematch of the Northwest District championship game, won by the Knights 63-55 March 4 in Mount Vernon.
Lynden Christian stayed close early in the game and went up 6-5 on a pair of free throws by Brianne Ryan.
Then Mosiman scored six of the Knights next eight points to give them a 13-8 lead that they would never relinquish. By the half, King’s led 29-15. At the end of three quarters, the lead increased to 38-19.
In the fourth quarter, the King’s fans began to chant “back to back,” and smiles started to appear on the faces of the Knights.
“It’s been surreal,” the University of Washington-bound Mosiman said. “It’s a person’s dream to be able to go through basketball seasons for four years with your best friend (teammate Caitlyn Faidley) and win it twice. There’s no one that really gets to do that. I just feel really blessed.”
Junior forward Sarah Strand, who scored 13 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked three shots in the championship game, defended Lyncs’ posts Kristin Berendsen and Jenna Reed. Berendsen and Reed combined for 19 points but shot only 36 percent, 8-for-22, from the field. Strand had a bigger role this year with the graduation of a group of five key players.
“I love having a tough assignment on defense,” Strand said. “It was fun being counted on to do something.”
Junior forward Danielle Clauson, a first-team all-tournament selection, scored nine points and hauled in nine rebounds.
The Knights defense held Lynden Christian to 21.4 percent field goal shooting for the game. Freshman guard Kenzie De Boer, who scored 20 points against the Knights in the district title, could only muster two points.
“We did what we wanted to,” King’s head coach Eric Rasmussen said. “Mo (Mosiman) did a great job in our help set and Cait (Faidley) rotated depending if Ryan or DeBoer was in. Cait’s been a stopper all year.”
Rasmussen also praised the efforts of Strand and bench player Kailey Trautmann on the Lyncs’ posts.
“That’s a very good basketball team,” he said. “We had some things go our way, hit some big shots when we needed to and I think our defense helped in some of it. Maybe a night they didn’t play as they could have too.”
The Knights’ average margin of victory in the tournament was 19 points and they held teams to an average of 32 points per game.
Last year, all the players started out as good friends, but this year with more new faces it took longer to jell, Faidley said. They came together as best friends while in Yakima, she said.
“You saw this team kind of evolve and grow and that’s pretty special,” Rasmussen said. “When you lose five really key seniors from last year you just kind of wonder what the chemistry will look like. I’m really proud of that, of how they grew together.”
The Knights, whose only losses this year came to 4A Snohomish and 3A champion Chief Sealth, will move down to 1A next season, but many of the top teams in 2A, including Lynden Christian, will too. The Knights went undefeated against Class 2A opponents the last two seasons.
Can King’s make it a threepeat?
“I hope so. We’re going to be working hard all offseason,” Strand said.
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