ELLENSBURG — The Sequim girls basketball team hung reasonably close to No. 1 ranked and unbeaten Ellensburg for three quarters in their 2A regionals matchup, but the Bulldogs rode a 12-0 spurt at the beginning of the fourth quarter to run away from the Wolves for a 59-35 win.
Regionals is the first round of state tournament play. Despite the loss, the No. 2-ranked Wolves will still move on to the Yakima SunDome on Tuesday to begin play in the state tournament. The loss did put Sequim in a loser-out contest against Sammamish at 9 p.m. Wednesday night.
Ellensburg is a 22-0 team and it’s easy to see why the Bulldogs are so tough — Ellensburg has had only one game all year in which a team managed to stay within 10 points. They feature 6-foot-6 post player Olivia Anderson and 6-foot-4 forward Alana Marrs. Sequim’s tall front line of Jelissa Julmist, Sammie Bacon and Dani Herman did a good job controlling Anderson and Marrs, but the Wolves were undone by Ellensburg’s defense and ability to create steals and turnovers. The Bulldogs also hit some timely 3-pointers.
“Jelissa had a great game on both sides guarding their bigs one on one,” said coach Joclin Julmist.
It was an odd game early with the referees calling a ton of fouls. Sequim was actually put in the penalty in the first quarter, which is rare in high school basketball. Despite the flurry of early whistles, the Wolves managed to avoid too much foul trouble with Jelissa Julmist the only player getting to four fouls.
A bucket by Dani Herman late in the third quarter had the Wolves at 41-29, still within striking distance. Ellensburg turned up the pressure on defense, forcing a number of turnovers to begin the fourth on a 12-0 run. They ended up outscoring Sequim 18-6 in the fourth.
Sequim ended up with 21 turnovers.
“We were right there with them for most of the game until the end of the third quarter when we started to turn the ball over,” said coach Julmist. “We missed to many open layups in the first half and second half. Then we started to turn the ball over and they got easy baskets of our turnovers.
“We didn’t have a complete team effort tonight we need every one of our starters to bring their best games to win games like this. [But it was a] good effort by the girls got to get ready for Sammamish on Wednesday night,” Julmist said.
Julmist led the Wolves with 14 points and four rebounds, while Hannah Bates hit a pair of 3-pointers and scored 12 to go along with three steals. Jolene Vaara had four steals and seven points.
Sammamish (19-6 overall) was the champion of the KingCo League and finished fifth in the District 2/3 tournament. The Redhawks are a No. 16 seed at state and won their regional game 45-38 over Sehome. Sequim (20-3) won the Olympic League and finished second in the District 2/3 tournament. The Wolves are a No. 8 state seed.
Ellensburg 59, Sequim 35
Seq. 10 8 11 6 — 35
E’burg 11 15 15 18 — 59
Sequim (35) — Julmist 14, Bates 12, Vaara 7, Herman 2.
