LYNNWOOD — The Meadowdale girls basketball team showed some true grit in a Feb. 21 Class 4A Northwest District 1 tournament opener.
The Mavericks came into the first-round game missing a pair of senior starters and found themselves up against a scrappy opponent who stubbornly refused to back down.
Meadowdale turned to senior forward Caitlyn Rohrbach, who made her final appearance before a home crowd a memorable one by scoring a game-high 19 points to lead the Mavericks to a 54-45 victory at Meadowdale High School.
“It definitely feels good to start off with a win at districts and get a game under our belt and get ready for the next one,” Rohrbach said.
Meadowdale takes on Snohomish at 8 p.m. tonight (Friday, Feb. 24) in a winner-to-state game at Marysville-Pilchuck High School. The Panthers defeated Mountlake Terrace 52-35 to advance to the semifinals.
The two senior starters were dismissed Feb. 14 due to a violation of the Edmonds School District athletic code, according to district athletic director Terri McMahan. The two’s status is unknown pending an ongoing appeal.
The Mavericks were focused on the game, Meadowdale coach Dan Taylor said.
“These girls want to play basketball,” he said. “They’re ready to move on and eliminate all the distractions and play hard.”
Rohrbach told her teammates to keep their eyes on their goals, one of which is a trip to the state tournament in the Tacoma Dome.
“We’re just going to play basketball,” Rohrbach said. “That’s what I keep telling the girls, whether we have 13 players or 10 players or just five players out there. We still have that goal in mind of getting to state. There’s a quote that says ‘Some people focus on what they’re going through. But champions focus on what they’re going to’ and we’re going to try to get to the Tacoma Dome.”
Junior guard Marelle Moehrle did her part in scoring 10 of her 15 points in the first quarter to help the Mavericks take a 16-8 advantage into the second quarter. The Mavericks (20-1 overall) extended their lead to 10 points three times in the second quarter before the Bearcats (14-7) rallied to cut the deficit to 27-21 at halftime.
Meadowdale maintained its 6-point lead throughout the third quarter in large part due to Rohrbach, who scored nine of her team’s 11 points.
“It being my last home game and just being a senior leader I knew I had to step up,” Rohrbach said. “My team was giving me good looks. I had to finish and make stuff happen.”
Monroe outscored Meadowdale 8-3 to start the fourth quarter and tied the score at 41. Sophomore Erin Jones responded with a 3-pointer and junior post Cassie Kosmides made one of two free throw to give the Mavericks a 45-41 lead with 3:52 remaining. Monroe junior forward Chelsea Drivstuen then scored to make the score 45-43.
Meadowdale closed out the game with a 9-2 run to secure the victory.
“I don’t think we played as good of Meadowdale basketball as we’ve played in the past,” Taylor said. “I’m going to give credit to Monroe. They were well coached.”
Taylor, however, was a little disappointed that the Mavericks weren’t able to extend its lead when they had the opportunity to do so.
“We can’t keep teams hanging around and we did that tonight,” he said. “We cannot do that any longer. We have to continue to extend the lead. We didn’t move the ball as well as we normally do.”
Herald writer Mike Cane contributed to this story.
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