Playing with its back against the wall and head coach not on the sidelines, the Evergreen girls basketball team played inspired basketball to keep their season alive Wednesday night.
Evergreen came out red-shot and never let up, routing league rival Kelso 90-49 in a loser-out game of the 3A bi-district tournament at Evergreen High School.
Evergreen jumped out to a 48-27 halftime lead behind the play of Adrian Wright and Kimora Ross.
Wright finished with 24 points and Ross added 19 as five Plainsmen players finished in double figures.
Courtney Neal scored 16, Maya Calhoun had 14 and Camryn Holt had 10.
Evergreen was playing without Charles Neal after the head coach was required to sit out the remainder of the season after being ejected from Evergreen’s game on Feb. 13 with two technical fouls. It was Neal’s second ejection of the season, leading to the suspension according to WIAA rules.
Anthony Lamberth will be Evergreen’s interim head coach for the balance of the season.
Wednesday’s win did give Evergreen two chances to secure a 3A state playoff berth for a second consecutive year.
Evergreen will play at Auburn Mountainview on Friday. The winner of that game will secure a state berth. The loser will get another chance to state on Saturday against the loser of Mountain View-Bellarmine Prep.
SUMNER 71, SKYVIEW 41 — Sumner jumped out to an early lead and never looked back as Skyview had its season end in a loser-out game of the 4A bi-district tournament in Sumner.
Kawehi Borden had eight of her nine points in the first quarter and Madison Hughes hit a pair of 3-pointers as Sumner jumped out to a 28-11 lead after one quarter. The Spartans built that lead to 41-18 by halftime.
Brynnlee Williams led Skyview (9-15) with 12 points. Lainey Phillips had 11 points and Cameron Watson had nine.
