PUYALLUP — The East Jefferson girls assured themselves of a winning season after coming from way behind in the fourth quarter to beat Cascade Christian 41-36 this weekend.
Cascade Christian went into the fourth quarter at the District III 1A tournament opener up 32-23, but the Rivals outscored the Cougars 18-4 in the fourth to move on to the next round. East Jefferson (12-9) will play at Annie Wright (14-4) at 6 p.m. Tuesday, but win or lose, the Rivals will move to play either Bellevue Christian or Life Christian on Thursday. That game will likely be against Life Christian.
“Our free throws and defense were the story in this one,” said coach Ethan Bates. Cascade Christian beat East Jefferson 45-24 in the regular season.
East Jefferson shot 80 percent from the free-throw line with Kay Botkin shooting 12-for-13. She also hit a pair of 3-pointers and finished with 20 points, adding five assists and three steals to her stats.
Penina Vailolo scored 11 points despite foul trouble, while Teri Wiley had 12 rebounds and three steals. “Teri Wiley was in on every hustle play,” Bates said.
“Bre Huntingford had ice in her veins. She knocked down two huge free throws to ice the game with seven seconds left,” he said.
With the win, the Rivals improved their record to 12-9 and assured themselves of a winning season.
East Jefferson 41, Cascade Chr. 36
EJ 15 3 5 18 — 41
CC 9 13 10 4 — 36
East Jefferson (41) — Botkin 20, Vailolo 11, Wiley 4, Shockley 3, Huntingford 3.
Forks 65, Chief Leschi 28
ROCHESTER — The Forks girls basketball team (10-11) got a monster game from Bailey Johnson in romping over Chief Leschi 65-28 on Saturday to stay alive in the District 4 2B tournament.
Johnson had her best game of the year, scoring 37 points while only playing the first three quarters.
“We wanted to play with pace and she took that to heart,” said coach David Hurn. “She’s a very dedicated individual. Very driven.” He said Johnson got a lot of her baskets on steals and drives to the bucket.
“She had an excellent game. I’m very proud of her,” Hurn said.
The girls’ game was very similar to the Forks boys. The girls beat the same school as the boys and got off to a fast start, getting ahead 22-3. The boys, meanwhile, got up on Chief Leschi 17-0 in the first quarter.
Both the boys and the girls will now play the same school — Mossyrock (10-10 overall), a new 2B squad that Neah Bay played several times in the postseason at the 1B level the past few years. That game is at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Castle Rock High School. The girls must now win two straight to qualify for state.
Forks 65, Chief Leschi 28
Forks 22 16 21 6 —65
CL 3 10 11 4 — 28
Forks (65) — Johnson 37, Dilley 8, Crowder 7, Hampton 4, Gaydeski 4, Peters 2, Rondeau 2, Salazar 1.
Muckleshoot 72, Crescent 36
PUYALLUP — A young Crescent team’s season ended with a 72-36 Tri-District tournament loss to Muckleshoot.
The Loggers made postseason despite starting as many as three eighth-graders this season.
“If I had told you would make Tri-District with five eighth-graders on the team, you would have said ‘what are you drinking’?” said coach Brian Shimko.
Two of the eighth-graders, Ella Kneiss and Kali Hopper, started every game, gaining invaluable high school basketball experience.
Naomii Sprague, one of the team’s few veterans, had 28 points. She will be back next year as a senior. It’s really hard for other teams to handle her speed,” Shimko said. Also playing in the game, her first of the year, was Elvira Wheeler, who scored three points.
