SEATTLE
Meadowdale’s clash against Bainbridge was far from your typical high school girls basketball game.
Not if you consider a 6 a.m. wake-up call, the school band drowning out the Maverick coach’s words and a poke to the eye of Meadowdale’s best player normal.
The Mavericks overcame all of these challenges and the disappointment of a first-round loss to Lakes by defeating the Spartans 72-63 in a loser-out Class 3A state consolation game March 6 at Bank of America Arena at the University of Washington’s Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
Senior guard Eryn Jones, who took an inadvertent finger to her right eye by an official, scored a game-high 25 points and had five steals to lead Meadowdale.
Jones initially was laughing about the finger incident, which took place in the fourth quarter. The Portland State University-bound recruit was on the sidelines waiting to pass the ball in when official Anton Churlin accidentally struck her as he was signaling that the 5-second inbounding count had started.
“I never had that happen before,” Jones said. “At first, I was laughing.”
But then she realized that “it really hurt.” Jones wears contacts and thought she had lost one of them in the mishap. The senior guard soon headed to the bench but then quickly returned and made four consecutive free throws in the final minute to seal the victory.
Jones converted on all 13 of her free throws, which Mavericks coach Dan Taylor believes is a school record.
“I know free throws can win or lose a game,” Jones said. “If I was to miss some of those, who knows what the game would have been like? You’ve got to focus and try to hit those.”
After a back-and-forth first quarter, Meadowdale extended a 23-21 lead to 44-35 at halftime on a 3-pointer by senior Danica Coronacion with 1 second remaining.
The Mavericks’ lead grew to 13 points early in the third quarter before Bainbridge cut it to 59-50 at the end of the period. The Spartans were able to cut the deficit to 68-63 on a basket by Anna Wood just over a minute left in the fourth quarter. Jones then connected on four throws, while Bainbridge misfired on its final two offensive possessions.
“When they got closer we just kind of had to slow it down and say ‘Hey. Let’s play our game,’” Jones said.
“Our girls fought through and bounced back,” Taylor added.
Meadowdale, which came in ranked third in the final Associated Press poll, didn’t have much time to recover from its tough 59-56 loss to No. 2 ranked Lakes a day earlier. The Mavericks/Spartans’ game tipped off at 9 a.m., which meant that most of the players had to get up three hours earlier.
“It’s tough. You’ve just got to come out focused even more,” Jones said. “You’ve got to get prepared and up for the game. I think you do that by your teammates. You give yourself energy. So we just got each other pumped up to play the game and have fun.”
Taylor didn’t necessarily mind the early start.
“It’s OK because sometimes when you sit around the whole day, it kind of drains you, especially if you have to go to school,” he said. “It was fine because they didn’t have to school. They don’t have to worry about books. They can just go and play.”
Meadowdale defeated Bainbridge 85-67 in a December match-up. Even though Thursday’s game was closer, the Mavericks did a better job of defending Spartan standout Brittany Gray, who scored 27 in the first game. Gray finished with a team-high 18 points, 14 of which were in the first half. The Mavericks made a defense adjustment in the second half that slowed down the 5-foot-11 junior forward. Taylor instructed Anna Molitor to front Gray immediately rather than waiting for the ball to be passed to her. Gray was only two of nine from the field in the second half. Meadowdale forced 24 Bainbridge turnovers and limited its own miscues to 10.
In addition to battling the Spartans, Taylor struggled to be heard on his own bench due to the loudness of the Meadowdale band. At one point, Taylor and his entire squad left the bench area and headed out of the arena. An official later told Taylor that wasn’t allowed.
“We can’t hear when our band is right next to us,” Taylor said. “Then I told one of the students to go tell the band to quiet down during our timeouts and so they did that.”
Coronacion scored 11 points and junior guard Hanna Fjortoft, who still is dealing with an ankle injury, scored 10 points, including three 3-pointers in the first half.
Fjortoft’s teammates are impressed by her tolerance for pain.
“I don’t know anyone who can play on that hurt of an ankle and hit those three 3s in the first half,” Jones said. “That shows a lot about her.”
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