Trico girls: Seton Catholic hangs to beat Castle Rock 54-53 to clinch district berth

Seton Catholic survived a rough night at the free-throw line and held on to beat Castle Rock 54-53 on Monday in a Trico League tiebreaker game at La Center.

Seton Catholic (9-10) secured the Trico’s No. 3 seed to the district tournament and will play at Tenino on Friday in the first round.

Castle Rock (4-16) will face Columbia-White Salmon at 6 p.m. Tuesday at La Center to determine the final berth to the district tournament.

Kasey Clifton scored all nine of her points in the third quarter as Seton rallied from a 23-18 halftime deficit to take a 43-37 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The Cougars pushed their advantage to nine points before Castle Rock started to cut into their lead.

When Castle Rock’s fouls sent the Cougars to the line, they struggled, hitting just 1 of 11 free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter.

“They put us on the line in the fourth quarter, and as you see, we didn’t do well,” Seton coach Joe Potter said.

Brooke Wirkkala scored 10 of her 20 points in the fourth quarter as the Rockets got within one in the final minute.

Seton missed two more free throws with one second left, but the Rockets were unable to get off a shot.

Got up by 9 in 4th, kept picking away at us, wirkkal 10 in 4th Q, put us on line, as you see we didn’t do well, 1-11 in the fourth quarter.

Up 1 at ft line, missed both, had 1 second left didn’t get shot off.

Seton is in. Camy Price 14 rebound, Clifton all 9 in third get us going.

Lauryn Bowyer, Maddie Willis and Hannah Jo Hammestrom each had 10 points for Seton, and Cami Price pulled down 14 rebounds.

SETON CATHOLIC 54, CASTLE ROCK 53

CASTLE ROCK — Brooke Wirkkala 20, Lori Ogden 4, Laynee Logan 12, Susan Mosqueda 0, Kate Loftus 9, Kynsi Bayes 2, Brooke Alblinger 6, Elieriq Cole 0. Totals 21 (9) 2-5 53.

SETON CATHOLIC — Lauryn Bowyer 10, Abigail Wall 9, Maddie Willis 10, Hannah Jo Hammerstrom 10, Alyssa Mancuso 0, Cami Price 6, Annie Marichalar 0, Kasey Clifton 9. Totals 23 (7) 1-14 54.

C. Rock 7 16 13 16—53

Seton 12 6 25 11—54