NEAH BAY — Neah Bay handled Lummi defensively, shaking off a 10-day layoff to hold down the Blackhawks 57-19 in a Class 1B Tri-District Tournament girls basketball win Tuesday at Port Angeles High School.
With the win, the Red Devils (19-2) officially clinched a spot in the state regional round and unofficially a return trip to the Class 1B state basketball tournament in Spokane. Neah Bay is ranked No. 3 in the WIAA’s rating percentage index (RPI) and teams that are ranked one through eight in the RPI are seed-protected and can lose at regionals and still advance to the state tournament.
The Red Devils play Mount Vernon Christian at Mount Vernon Christian (18-5) in the Tri-District semifinals today at 6 p.m. The teams played in early December at Mount Vernon and Neah Bay won 69-43.
Tuesday night against Lummi, Neah Bay’s defense stood out to coach Tony McCaulley.
The Red Devils led 26-10 at halftime and 39-12 after three quarters.
“I thought we played really well defensively to give up just 19 points,” he said. “That’s really, really good.
“I thought in the first half we contested their shots really well, we played a special defense on one of their better players [Shelby Jacobs]. We played No. 30 tight because she hit a lot of 3s against a few teams this year.”
“Offensively we missed a lot of easy shots tonight, and we can’t do that against a good team. I thought we started to feel a little better in the second half. We got some runouts and stuff, so that helped us a little bit.”
McCaulley thinks the layoff that comes with playing in a small district has an impact in the first Tri-District game each season.
“Everybody else [in District 1 and 2] is playing every other day [in league and district tournaments] and we have to sit for a week and a half,” he said.
“We try to schedule around that a little bit. We had one late game against Taholah that helped us out.”
Lalia Greene led Neah Bay with 14 points, including four 3-point baskets. She added seven rebounds, an assist and a steal.
“She’s been playing really good all year for us,” McCaulley said. “She’s coming on with her shot, she hustles, she’s gritty. All 90 pounds of her, that is. She’s pretty light.”
Courtney Swan added 11 points, nine rebounds, six steals and an assist.
Ruth Moss scored 10 points with eight rebounds and a block.
Point guard Gina McCaulley dished out 11 assists and Cheyanna Svec sank 3 of 8 3s to account for nine points.
Neah Bay 57, Lummi 19
Lummi 7 3 2 7— 19
Neah 18 8 13 18— 57
Lummi (19) — Greene 5, D. Toby 5, Jacobs 5, Phair 2, A. Toby 2.
Neah Bay (57) — Greene 14, C. Swan 11, Moss 10, Svec 9, P. Swan 7, McCarty-Corpuz 2, McCaulley 2, Winck 2, Pilatti, Yallup, Woodruff, Della.
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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
