SHORELINE
The streak is over.
Archbishop Murphy tore apart King’s to end the Knights’ 39-game Cascade Conference winning streak Dec. 19 at Mike Martin Gym.
The Knights did not lose a league game in the first three years of the conference’s existence, during which they won two state Class 2A titles and finished second in Class 1A last year.
Now there’s a new heavyweight.
“I think they’re clearly the favorite to win the conference,” King’s head coach Eric Rasmussen said of the Wildcats.
Archbishop Murphy (2-0 conference, 3-2 overall) dominated all facets of the game to win 45-26, its first victory over King’s in school history.
“It was a whole team effort,” said Wildcat forward Sammi Pettinger, who scored a team-high 12 points. “It was everybody on the team contributing whether it was on the bench or on the court.”
The Wildcats’ full-court press stifled King’s early, as the Wildcats were able to force turnovers and build a 14-0 first quarter lead.
“We thought we could keep the tempo in our favor with the press,” Archbishop Murphy coach John Barhanovich said. “In the first quarter we didn’t give them any good looks. Part of that was the press and part of it was that we played pretty good defensively.”
King’s didn’t score until the 5:30 mark of the second quarter. Kelli Cutright hit two free throws to cut the lead to 18-2 after being fouled on a 3-point attempt by Alyssa Smith. King’s went on a 12-3 run before Pettinger knocked down a 3-pointer to make it 24-12 at the half.
The Wildcats fueled a 12-0 run at the start of the third quarter with the press. Forward Claire Anderson scored six points during the stretch.
King’s used a box-and-one defense and double teams on Smith, a 6-foot forward and the Wildcats’ top inside player. She only scored two points.
“They took Alyssa Smith out of the game,” Barhanovich said. “She’s in the game, but she’s not scoring points. We have enough that we can let her do the other stuff and let other kids score.”
Guard Shelby Lyman added nine points for the Wildcats.
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