MOUNT VERNON — The Port Townsend girls hung tough with a very good Nooksack Valley team until early in the second quarter, but the Pioneers eventually ground down the Redhawks 57-26 in a loser-out 1A Regionals game.
Friday night’s loss ends the Olympic League 1A Division champion Redhawks’ season at 10-12. Nooksack Valley moves to the 1A state tournament.
“That was a tremendously talented defensive team,” said coach Scott Wilson.
Port Townsend was behind just 10-8 at the end of the first quarter and even briefly took the lead eearly int he second, but Nooksack (19-7), ranked No. 10 in the state in RPI, was too much, outscoring the Redhawks 29-10 in the second half.
“They were just too physical. They out-muscled us,” Wilson said.
Playing in their last games for Port Townsend, Jaz Apker-Montoya led the Redhawks with 11 points, while Kaitlyn Meek scored 10. Sophomore Izzy Hammett chipped in five points.
Wilson said that overall, it was a highly successful season for the Redhawks, who made won their league championship and made it out of their district tournament.
“I’m really happy with how the season went. We outperformed everyone’s expectations, not so much our own expectations,” he said.
Port Townsend made the regionals with the lowest RPI among the 16 teams — No. 46. Wilson said part of this was because the Redhawks played a bunch of games against 2A and even 3A-level schools to try to toughen up for the postseason.
The Redhawks will have to rebuild as they lose the bulk of their starters. Their two leading scorers, Apker-Montoya and Meek both graduate (in fact, Wilson expect Meek will play college ball next year), as do Cece Nielsen, Jordyn King and Taylor Tracer.
Nooksack Valley 57, Port Townsend 26
PT 8 8 5 5 — 26
NV 10 16 16 15 — 57
Port Townsend (26) — Apker-Montoya 11, Meek 10, Hammett 5.
Nooksack Valley (55) — Gimmaka 18, DeBeeld 13, Galley 9, Compton 6, Larsen 5, Tenkley 5, Strong 1.
