They cut down the nets Tuesday night at Skyview High School. Actually, they cut down one of the nets.
Regardless, it was time for the Skyview girls basketball players to celebrate.
With no district tournament in the Class 4A Greater St. Helens League this year, the Storm went with Plan B.
They would cut the net if they won their opening round game in the bi-district tournament — the last home game of the season.
By now you must know, the Storm did prevail.
Katie Swanson led a balanced scoring attack with 12 points, and the Storm shook off a tough third quarter, then pulled away again to beat Olympia 49-36.
Skyview (17-4) will play Friday against Federal Way at Rogers High School in Puyallup in the bi-district quarterfinals, with the winner advancing to the state opening round.
“In the past, we’ve kind of struggled at this point of the season,” Swanson said, referring to postseason losses against competition from northern schools. “We played together tonight. I think we were just ready.”
Really ready, from the start.
Skyview sprinted out to an 18-4 lead after the first quarter and led by 15 at the half.
Olympia, though, held the Storm to five points in the third quarter and then scored the first five points of the final quarter to make it a four-point game.
“I think we calmed down a little bit too much,” Swanson said of the halftime break.
Then she noticed the lead was down to four.
“We picked up the intensity after that,” she said. “I just kept thinking, ‘Keep on working hard. Leave it all on the floor, and we will put it together at the end.’ We made it work.”
Brooke Bowen scored from inside the key after a perfect pass from Delaney Keser to make it 34-28 with 5:02 remaining. After a Skyview defensive stop, Larissa Hamilton got a lay-up off a nice feed from Swanson.
The Bears would get the next basket, but then Keser swished a 3-pointer — Skyview’s first from long range in the game — to make it a nine-point game. Olympia never recovered.
Keser finished with nine points, while Bowen and Hamilton each had eight points. Hamilton also had 10 rebounds, while Bowen and Swanson each had nine boards.
Skyview set the tone early, grabbing the first 12 of the 15 available rebounds in the game. Skyview ended up with a 48-27 edge on the boards.
“We knew that was one of our strengths coming into this game,” Skyview coach Jennifer Buscher said. “We had to take advantage of our bigs. We didn’t think anyone could match up with Larissa or Katie.”
Or Bowen. Or Sarah Mason.
Mason, the lone senior on this squad, came off the bench and got two offensive rebounds in her first couple of minutes on the floor. Her second led to a put-back basket just before the end of the first quarter.
“I’ve got my job to do,” Mason said. “I know everybody is working their butts off out there, so I just had to do my job.”
She called this night, this season, bittersweet because the end of her high school career is near. But it has also been special.
“Our team is so close,” Mason said. “It’s a good feeling, knowing we all have each other’s backs.”
The Storm relied on each other to get through that rough 11-minute stretch of the second half when Olympia made its run. Then it was time to celebrate their league title, their No. 1 seed from the district, and their first win in the bi-district.
“It’s one more step on this journey,” Buscher said.
Bring down the net.
