MUKILTEO
The plan in the final minutes was for Kamiak to shoot the ball only when it had easy shots.
For Kelsey Patrick, that includes 20-footers.
With just more than two minutes remaining and her team trailing by a point, the 6-foot guard caught a pass and found herself wide open on the wing. Her team needing her to both take and make the shot, Patrick did both, sparking them to a 57-54 victory against Edmonds-Woodway on Jan. 30.
The shot gave Kamiak the lead for good and began a 6-0 run that took the wind out of the Warriors.
“If I have an open shot, I’m going to take it,” said Patrick, who led all scorers with 24 points. “I have enough confidence to take those shots. Sometimes it doesn’t turn out too good, but I just have to keep shooting it.”
Edmonds-Woodway rallied in the third period and seemed to have slowly taken control of the game late in the fourth. A layup by Alex Kenney gave the Warriors a 51-49 lead and late momentum.
It was still only 51-50 when that cross-court pass found a wide open Patrick on the wing. Her 3-point shot gave the Knights a 53-51 lead with 2 minutes, 4 seconds to play, and Edmonds-Woodway turned the ball over on shot clock violations on its next two possessions.
Julia Church hit two free throws and Patrick one to put Kamiak ahead 56-51 and all but seal the victory. Edmonds-Woodway had one more chance – getting the ball with 13 seconds remaining and down three – but failed to get a shot off.
“That was a huge shot Kelsey hit,” Kamiak head coach Jody Schauer said. “We were working for a good shot. We wanted to run our offense and keep attacking, but we basically didn’t want to take a shot unless it was a layup or an open shot.”
Patrick scored 11 of her game-high points during a first half dominated by Kamiak. The Knights jumped on top 18-7 in the first period and were ahead 27-14 after a Patrick layup with 4:13 remaining in the half.
Five straight points from Patrick to begin the second half kept Kamiak ahead 36-25, before Edmonds-Woodway rallied. The Warriors went on a 15-1 run – the final nine points of the spurt scored by guard Jennifer Singh – to capture a 40-37 lead. Kamiak managed to regain a 42-40 lead going into the fourth and neither team led by more than two, until Patrick’s big shot ignited the Knights’ late run.
This was the second time this season Kamiak rallied in the final two minutes to defeat Edmonds-Woodway.
The Knights, though, may not have needed to rally if they could’ve performed better from the free-throw line. They were only 14-for-28 on the night. Even the hot-handed Patrick was 6-for-12.
“We didn’t help ourselves out too much with the missed free throws,” Schauer said. “We had a lot of opportunities.”
Jordan Keller had 10 points for Kamiak.
Ryan Piersol writes for The Herald in Everett.
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