EVERETT
Archbishop Murphy sophomore Alyssa Smith and freshman Sam Pettinger combined for 31 points in a 59-54 loss to Granite Falls in a Cascade Conference girls basketball game on Jan. 5.
After winning their first two games, the Wildcats have gone on to lose five of their last six and have dropped to 0-2 in league and 3-5 overall. Granite Falls, winners of four straight, improved to 2-0 in league and 6-1 overall. Granite Falls’ lone defeat came in a 55-54 loss to Concrete on Dec. 12.
“They did everything better than us tonight,” Archbishop Murphy head coach John Barhanovich said. “They really outplayed us. It really wasn’t much of a game for us.”
Granite Falls’ freshman guard Jacque Goss not only scored a game-high 24 points, but she was clutch down the stretch from the free-throw line. Goss, at 5-foot-5, sank seven consecutive free throws in the final two minutes of regulation. She went 11 of 13 overall from the stripe.
“She is really something,” Granite Falls coach Mark Neuman said. “And she’s just a freshman. I think this was our best game of the season. Our schedule hasn’t exactly been all that difficult. But to come out and beat a team like Archbishop Murphy, that is really saying something.”
Despite being outrebounded and outshot for most of the first half, the Wildcats managed to stay within striking distance. Pettinger scored Archbishop Murphy’s first seven points and Smith scored 11 of her 18 points late in the second quarter, as the Wildcats cut a nine-point deficit to four points at halftime.
“We didn’t stay in the game,” Barhanovich said. “They let us stay in the game because they stopped doing some of the things they had done in the first half. I have to give them all the credit in the world because they played strong. They are a very good team and that’s what it came down to.”
Pettinger, a 5-foot-8 forward, went cold in the second quarter, but she rallied back by sinking a 3-pointer from the left side with 4:26 remaining in the third quarter to narrow the Tigers’ lead to one point, 34-33. Less than two minutes later, freshman Shelby Lyman, one of seven underclassmen on the Wildcats’ roster, nailed one of her two 3-pointers, tying the score at 36.
The Tigers, however, quickly reestablished their lead after outscoring the Wildcats 7-2 in the final minute of the quarter. Junior forward Michaela Dudder scored four straight points during the run as the Tigers took a 43-38 advantage into the fourth quarter. Dudder finished with 12 points.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the girls,” Neuman said. “They worked hard every minute of the game and that’s what the difference was.”
The Granite Falls’ hot streak continued into the fourth quarter as the Tigers made three consecutive field goals and grabbed their biggest lead of 12 points with 5:34 remaining.
But the Wildcats refused to give up. They answered with 12 consecutive points and held the Tigers scoreless for three minutes, tying the score at 50-50 with 2:01 remaining.
Despite their valiant comeback, the Wildcats were unable to stop the Tigers from making one last charge thanks to flawless free throw shooting.
“This was a tough loss, but there were a few positives that I saw,” Barhanovich said. “We didn’t give up after falling behind by 12 points. And we had a few players come off the bench and make some big plays.”
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