King’s slows it down, but Wildcats prevail

EVERETT

Exactly a year ago, Archbishop Murphy played at a snail’s pace to slow down a King’s girls team that was ranked No. 1 in the state in 1A.

The tactic nearly worked. But with the roles reversed this season and the Wildcats unbeaten in the Cascade Conference, King’s returned the favor.

King’s ran off at least 20 seconds off the shot clock on most possessions before attacking the basket and the strategy proved to be effective. The Knights whittled a 16-point deficit down to four in the final minute before succumbing 40-34 Jan. 30 at Archbishop Murphy High School.

“Last year, here, the score at half time was 12-11 (with King’s ahead),” Archbishop Murphy coach John Barhanovich said. “We didn’t take a shot until the end of the shot clock. This year with the roles reversed they did the same thing. It’s a good coaching ploy. Like I said I used it last year, Eric used it this year. It’s great job of keeping you in the basketball game and they did a great job with it, an absolutely great job. We got a good lead and then we had enough to finish as they came chasing back in the basketball game at the end.”

Last year, King’s needed a strong fourth quarter to finish off Archbishop Murphy 34-19. The Wildcats whipped King’s 45-26 in the team’s first meeting this season back in December.

The Wildcats took a 24-8 lead on a 3-pointer by Sammi Pettinger early in the third quarter and held a 32-19 advantage going into the fourth. But after Nickole Bartholomew buried a 3-pointer with 4:45 to go to put the Wildcats up 38-26, King’s went on a 8-0 run and held Archbishop Murphy scoreless for almost four minutes.

A pair of free throws by Alison McConnaughey got King’s within 38-34 before Shelby Lyman hit a pair of free throws with 49 seconds to go to stop the bleeding. King’s Jana Jack scored six of her 10 points in the fourth quarter as King’s rallied.

“I thought they were the aggressor in the fourth quarter when they started making their comeback,” Barhanovich said. “They got great post stuff out of Jana Jack at the end. She got to the free throw line, she had a couple of baskets. They played a very good basketball game.”

The Knights had several shot clock violations in the first half because of the slowdown strategy, but it worked better in the second half.

Archbishop Murphy made six 3-pointers in the game, led by Bartholomew and Lyman who had two apiece and each scored eight points. Pettinger made one and scored a team-high nine points and Claire Anderson added one three and seven points.

“They did a real good job of making us run our offense too far out,” Barhanovich said. “So we ended up shooting 3-pointers, too many 3-pointers. They’re going to take (post) Alyssa Smith out the game as much as they possibly can. We tried to post her up a couple times. We got one and then we went back to it and we didn’t get that.”

King’s coach Eric Rasmussen left the gym pleased with what he saw.

“Probably our best effort mentally all year, That’s what I told the kids afterward. We stuck to our game plan, tried to shorten the game,” Rasmussen said. “Overall they played well to give themselves a chance and I guess that’s all you ask.

“That’s one you hope you can build on,” Rasmussen said. “That’s the first time we’ve really put 32 minutes together.”

Guard Kelli Cutright led King’s with 12 points.

“Kelli’s best game of the year, (she) just took care of the basketball,” Rasmussen said. “I thought she made a lot of good decisions tonight.”

Archbishop Murphy improved to 9-0 in the conference and 12-3 overall. King’s fell to 3-9 and 3-12.

Despite being unbeaten in the league, the Wildcats still have five games left and room for improvement.

“First of all we got to win the league and Lakewood is still only two games behind us,” Barhanovich said. “So we got to continue to win basketball games, so we can get first-place going into the district tournament.”

“I think we got to get basically better at making decisions. Sometimes we do things and I kind of shake my head as to why did we do that?,” he said. “I think if we can become better decision makers—and it’s usually on offense—I think we can become a better team.”