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Kalama girls outmuscle La Center for Trico top seed (video)

By Micah Rice, Columbian Sports Editor
Published: February 5, 2016, 11:07pm

KALAMA — Because of a coin flip, the La Center girls basketball team missed out on the Trico League’s top seed Friday.

But the Wildcats were more concerned with flipping the switch after a 68-52 loss in a packed Kalama High School gym.

La Center and Kalama are co-champions, having each finished 11-1 in the Trico League. But the Chinooks are the league’s No. 1 seed to the Class 1A District 4 tournament because they won a coin flip before Friday’s game.

Now the Wildcats enter the postseason hoping to move past a loss that denied them the league title outright.

“Now we’re zero and zero,” La Center coach Herm VanWeerdhuizen said. “Now we go to districts and I feel good about it. I think we’ll see Kalama in the district championship game.”

Kalama’s frontcourt tandem of Parker Esary and Kaelyn Shipley were too much for an undersized La Center team on Friday.

The broad-shouldered 6-foot juniors each scored 20 points, most of which were inside the paint.

“Esary and Shipley are big girls and they pushed us around,” VanWeerdhuizen said. “We didn’t have anyone who’s mean enough to get that job done. But we played hard.”

Friday was extra-special for Esary, who became just the fourth player in school history to score 1,000 points. When she reached that mark midway through the second quarter, the game was halted and fans waved orange signs with 1,000 on it.

“It’s awesome, but I couldn’t have done it without my teammates,” Esary said. “Last year we fell short, but this year we came out on top.”

Kalama scored the game’s first nine points to put La Center on its heels. The Chinooks led by as many as 14 in the second quarter and took a 36-28 lead into halftime.

But La Center rallied behind Taylor Mills, who scored 16 of her team-high 22 points in the second half. Taylor Stephens’ 3-pointer with 6:24 to play pulled the Wildcats within 46-45.

But Kalama outscored La Center 19-4 over the game’s final five minutes with Shipley and Esary combining for 10 points down the stretch.

VanWeerdhuizen said his team’s lack of experience in close games was a factor. Besides a 52-50 win over Kalama on Jan. 11, La Center had won its 10 other league games by an average of 42.2 points.

“We made the run, but we didn’t finish it,” VanWeerdhuizen said. “That’s what happens when you don’t have a chance to play four quarters with every team.”

As the Trico No. 2 seed, La Center opens district play on Thursday at home against Eatonville, the No. 3 seed from the Evergreen Conference.

Kalama hosts Evergreen No. 4 seed Hoquiam. Three teams in the eight-team tournament advance to the regional round of the state tournament.

KALAMA 68, LA CENTER 52

LA CENTER — Molly Edwards 8, Ashley Denney 0, Whitley Seter 0, Bethany Whitten 3, Shelby Vermeulen 3, Laynie Erickson 2, Taylor Mills 22, Andrea Griffee 3, Taylor Stephens 11. Totals 21 (5) 5-13 52.

KALAMA — McKenna LaRoy 5, Madison Hull 8, Serena Montanez 7, Kaelyn Shipley 20, Jaden Howard 0, Parker Esary 20, Skylar Nelson 0, Emily Nickelson 0, Natalie Wilson 0. Totals 26 (1) 15-26 68.

La Center 12 16 12 12–52

Kalama 22 14 10 22–68

JV — La Center 30-18.

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