KENT — The Prairie Falcons knew they were still a good team, even without one of their best players.
They knew they could still succeed.
They knew they could still win a big game.
Still, they acknowledged Monday afternoon, it felt really, really good to prove it.
Megan Lindsley, starting in place of the injured Heather Corral, made three 3-pointers and scored a team-high 13 points, and the Falcons rallied for a 52-46 victory over Kennedy of Burien in the championship game of the Class 3A bi-district girls basketball tournament at the ShoWare Center.
“This is a huge accomplishment,” Lindsley said, noting there has been a lot of discussion since Corral suffered a knee injury Saturday night in the tournament’s semifinals. “We’ve had so many team talks, reminding each other to stick together, that we could do this. We just had a lot of confidence.”
On Monday, the Falcons learned that Corral suffered a torn ACL in her left knee and is done for the rest of the season.
The Falcons improved to 24-0, and if they learned anything from the first 23 games, they knew they were a solid all-around team.
Andrea Smith scored 11 points off the bench, including six in a crucial stretch in the third quarter.
“We knew it was going to be hard, but we all stepped it up as a team,” said Smith, who was 5 of 6 from the floor and also had four steals.
Jackie Lanz sacrificed her body to take three charges.
And the team’s three seniors — Lanae Adams, Angela Gelhar, and Lauren Goecke — did what seniors are counted on to do in the clutch.
Goecke was forced into much of the ball-handling duties with Corral’s injury. Her aggressive drives to the basket, especially early in the game, showed the Falcons were going to stick to their attack mode.
Gelhar hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the third quarter to give Prairie the lead, then crushed the Lancers’ spirit with another 3-ball in the fourth quarter after Kennedy had cut a 10-point deficit to one.
Adams ended up converting a three-point play in the final minute to give the Falcons another cushion, but it was her 13 rebounds that gave her team a bigger lift.
Every Falcon on the floor contributed to the defensive effort. Kennedy was held to seven points in the third quarter and went nearly eight minutes without a field goal in the second half. The Lancers finished 16 of 61 — 26 percent — from the floor.
Aminah Wiliams, who is going to the University of Washington, led Kennedy with 19 points and 24 rebounds. She made her first four shots, but was 2 for 12 the rest of the game.
Lanz said coach Al Aldridge had a simple piece of advice for the Falcons, and she took it to heart.
“Make sure your player has no fun. That’s the mentality I carried into the game with,” Lanz said. “Whoever I was on, they weren’t going to have any fun.”
Kennedy, which fell to 23-2, can play defense, too. Lindsley’s 3-pointer with 6:22 left in the game gave Prairie a 43-33 lead. But the Falcons went 3:59 without scoring, and Kennedy got back in it.
A 3-pointer from Kennedy’s Allie Madison with 2:11 left cut the advantage to one, at 44-43. But Gelhar responded from deep on the other end, pushing Prairie’s lead back to four.
Kennedy would get the next three points, but a couple of sweet passes by Cori Woodward and Lindsley set up Adams, who made a lay-up and was fouled with 41 seconds remaining, Her free throw made it 50-46.
“Me and Cori made eye contact, she gave me a perfect pass, then Lanae was went right where she was supposed to go,” Lindsley said. “Lanae had a great finish. I had so much excitement. Everyone knew that was it. We got them.”
As the players cut down a net as bi-district champions, their coach was beaming about their effort.
“That was fun and exciting. I’m really happy for our girls,” he said. “We haven’t had a lot of close game. The undetermined factor was how we were going to perform in crunch time. We got some great performances. We can play close, to-the-wire games and get it done.”
Next for the Falcons is the Class 3A regionals of the state tournament. Prairie will play Lakeside of Seattle on Friday at the regional at Auburn Mountainview High School. The winner advances to the state quarterfinals on March 3 at the Tacoma Dome. The loser will play a loser-out game at the Auburn regional on Saturday.
PRAIRIE 52, KENNEDY 46
KENNEDY — Kelsey Trautmann 2, Jasmine Lemon 5, Danielle Bojorquez 3, Allie Madison 13, Aminah Williams 19, Mayah Williams 4, Diondra Bourgette 0, Erin Gosseen 0, Vivienne McClean 0. Totals 16-61 (2-12) 12-20 46.
PRAIRIE — Angela Gelhar 10, Lanae Adams 3, Lauren Goecke 9, Megan Lindsley 13, Jackie Lanz 1, Cori Woodward 4, Kelsey Asplund 1, Andrea Smith 11. Totals 19-48 (6-17) 8-17 52.
