SHORELINE
Watch out for the Shorecrest girls basketball team.
Freshman guard Rachel Shrote dribbled the length of the court and dropped in a floater at the buzzer from 12 feet to give the Scots a 54-52 comeback win over Edmonds-Woodway Dec. 14 at Shorecrest.
Shrote said she was looking to dish off but “no one was really guarding me.”
“Luckily, it went in,” the 5-foot, 2-inch Shrote said.
The game was back-and-forth and was typical of Shorecrest’s season, which includes a strong second half performance in a win over Shorewood and upset of Kamiak.
Shorecrest led by as many as 11 in the third quarter, but Edmonds-Woodway stormed back and took a 48-47 lead on a basket by freshman reserve Ashley Albertson with three minutes to play. Erin Lauber scored to give the Warriors a three-point lead but Gloria Tseng answered with an inside basket with 2:14 to play.
Edmonds-Woodway beat the Shorecrest press and Lauber scored on a layup with 1:25 left. Shorecrest’s Jocelyn Riordan couldn’t convert a layup and the Warriors got the ball back. After a rebound by Lauber of her own miss, Edmonds-Woodway turned the ball over to give Shorecrest new life with 31 seconds to play.
Ashley Hagood, who finished with a team-high 15 points, knocked down a 3-pointer with 17 seconds to go to tie it at 52. Edmonds-Woodway got the ball to Lauber but her shot was off the mark and Shorecrest got the rebound with 5.4 seconds to go. After a timeout, Shrote took the inbounds pass and weaved her way down the left side of the court and let a shot fly just inside the free throw line for the game-winner.
Shorecrest fell behind by seven in the first quarter but stormed back to go on a 11-1 run to take a 13-10 lead. Edmonds-Woodway tied it at 21 on a free throw by Christina Olson but Shorecrest ended the half on a 8-0 run. Riordan hit a pair of three-pointers including a 30-footer at the buzzer.
In the third quarter, Shorecrest stepped up its full-court press and opened up a 41-30 lead on a shot by point guard Caroline Towles.
“The second half we didn’t handle it as well as we should have,” new Edmonds-Woodway coach Wayne Edwards said. “We didn’t take care of it.”
Edmonds-Woodway managed to cut it to seven at the end of the quarter, 43-36. Edmonds-Woodway’s Abby Butler, who finished with a game-high 18 points, scored all of them in the first three quarters. The Warriors started the fourth quarter on a 14-4 run to take back the lead before Shorecrest rallied in the final seconds.
“We played a lot better,” Edwards said. “We’re a work in progress, we really are.”
“I told them they played their hearts out, they played tough,” he said. “I felt that Shorecrest got the breaks, everything went their way. Now we just need to get Shorecrest in our house.”
The coaches picked Shorecrest to finish seventh in the league this year out of nine teams and that provided some extra motivation for the team, said Riordan, who finished with 13 points.
“It showed we had something to prove,” she said. “This team has really stepped up and it’s been fun.”
The Scots had quite of bit of talent last year and higher expectations but never quite jelled. This year they’ve shown a balance with outside shooters, Riordan, Hagood and Casey Axelson and 5-9 post Gloria Tseng. The Scots have two skilled ball handlers in Shrote and Towles, and despite only standing 5-2, Shrote can drive the lane and kick the ball out or find the open player inside.
“We’re all pretty well-rounded,” Hagood said. “We have a lot of good outside shooters and a lot of good posts.”
The Scots will still be heavy underdogs against Jackson and Meadowdale but so far they have been the surprise team in the league.
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