In a victory that coach Al Aldridge called “one of the best all-time for me,” the Prairie girls basketball team fended off White River of Buckley for a 64-58 victory that sends the Falcons back to the Class 3A state tournament.
Prairie led by as many as 21 points in the third quarter before an injury, turnovers and missed free throws allowed White River to cut the margin to two points.
“We had a little pow-wow session with 2½ minutes to go,” Aldridge said. “We said ‘we’re going to be fine. We just need to make some stops and make our free throws.’ We went back to our press, which we had gotten away from. They made a couple of turnovers, and Angie Gelhar stuck some key free throws, as did Emily Rowe and Michelle Bollinger.”
But the star of the game for Prairie was Jackie Lanz, Aldridge said. Lanz was assigned to guard White River’s Brooke Paulson and limited Paulson to eight points through three quarters.
But early in the fourth, Lanz hurt her back battling for a loose ball. With Lanz out of the game, Paulson scored 15 points in the final period.
“We were fortunate to have the big cushion going into the fourth,” Aldridge said, adding that Lanz suffered from back spasms, which he hopes won’t sideline her long.
Rowe also had a solid game with 10 points, nine rebounds and three steals. She went 2 for 2 from the line late in the game. Bollinger was 3 for 4 from the line in the fourth and Gelhar was 7 of 9 in the final period and 9 of 12 overall.
Girls basketball
Union 50, Tyee 31 — The Titans stayed alive in pursuit of a Class 3A state girls basketball tournament berth with a wild win over Tyee in the bi-district tournament.
Union led 19-2 early in the second quarter only to see Tyee go on a 19-1 run to take a one-point lead early in the third quarter.Union, though, responded and kept its season alive. Brittney Blumenthal led Union with 14 points.
Mikyla Ogata added eight points and Bre Sorenson scored seven for the Titans.
Union will take on Capital of Olympia at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Clover Park High School in a winner-to-state, loser-out game.
Newport 69, Skyview 44 — Larissa Hamilton scored 10 points and was the lone Skyview player in double figures as the Storm saw their season end with a bi-district loss.
Onalaska 37, La Center 35 — Onalaska made a game-tying free throw with 20 seconds to play and made two more free throws in the waning seconds to pull out a win in a Class 1A girls basketball playoff game. The game ended La Center’s season one win short of a state-tournament bid.
“It was a great game,” La Center coach Kate Stevens said. “Both teams played hard. It was a physical, defensive game. They just came out with a few more points than we did.”
Hannah Trigg led La Center (15-7) with 12 points.
Sydney Wise added 7 rebounds, and Kiley Monson had seven rebounds and six steals.
Boys basketball
Lake Washington 67, Skyview 55 — A 30-18 first-half deficit was too much for Skyview to overcome in the 4A bi-district playoff at Kirkland. The Storm finish their season 13-9.
“They beat us in the first half,” Skyview coach Bob Benson said. “We competed well in the second half, but we just couldn’t climb out of the hole.”
Jordan Chatman led Skyview in scoring with 19 points. Blake Bowen had 10 rebounds, and Dallin Shirley had seven points and eight rebounds.
Benson said Lake Washington (17-7) did a good job of creating a fast-paced game.
“We didn’t handle that real well and were forced into a lot of quick shots and made turnovers,” he said. “We just didn’t get it going offensively in the first half.”
River Ridge 55, Ridgefield 46 — Scott Backstrom scored 17 of his 25 points in the second half to keep the Spudders close, but the Hawks pulled away in the fourth quarter.
The game was tied 32-32 after three quarters when River Ridge scored on three consecutive possessions to open the fourth quarter.
After pushing the lead to eight points with 3:17 left, River Ridge sealed the win by making 7 of 10 free throws in the final two minutes.
“It was a good game, and I thought we played well,” Ridgefield coach Gregg Ford said. “River Ridge was the No. 1 seed from up north. They’re pretty athletic, but we still put ourselves in a position to win. But they just got away from us in the end.”
The Spudders were again without injured forward Michael Schwinoff, which hurt Ridgefield on the boards.
Sam Landerholm added 11 points as Ridgefield only got scoring contributions from four players.
Tumwater 62, Hockinson 60 — Joshua Hall had 15 points and Cole Larson added 13 as the Hawks missed a six-foot jumper at the buzzer that would have forced overtime in the Class 2A district playoff game at Hockinson.
Tumwater held a six-point lead midway through the fourth quarter before the Hawks rallied back to tie the game with two minutes to play.
After the Thunderbirds took a two-point lead late, a missed Tumwater free throw with eight seconds left gave Hockinson one last shot. But it was off the mark.
Tumwater used strong outside shooting to take an early lead. The Thunderbirds made 6 of 10 attempts from 3-point range.
Hall and Larson also had five steals for Hockinson, which will face Ridgefield in a loser-out game Wednesday at a site to be announced.
Mitch Tugaw added 12 points and Lucas Schwanz had 11.
