A well-worn sports cliché says it’s tough to beat a team three times in a row. But that’s exactly what the White River High girls must do to secure a return trip to the Class 3A state championships.
The state tournament is familiar turf for the Hornets, who have qualified for the elite field 10 times during the 12-year reign of coach Chris Gibson. But, just as one more victory will send the Hornets yet again to the Tacoma Dome, a single loss will bring the White River season to a screaming halt.
The Hornets will take the court at 8 tonight, Wednesday, at Clover Park High School, paired against the Auburn Mountainview Lions.
During the regular South Puget Sound League 3A season, White River placed first and Auburn Mountainview was third. In their two league meetings, the Hornets claimed 44-43 and 47-44 victories.
If his crew takes care of business and does all the little things right, Gibson sees a third victory over the Lions and another state bid for his Hornets.
“We need to put together a 32-minute basketball game,” he said, emphasizing the need to crash the boards with abandon.
“The team that controls the boards will control the game,” Gibson said. “We need to get second-change opportunities and limit theirs.”
Winning the rebounding battle is a tall order against the Lions, who rely heavily on 6-foot-1 Stephanie Smolinski and 5-11 Caitlin Carr. The two average 12.6 and 12.9 points per game, respectively.
White River and Auburn Mountainview are among 16 teams that kicked off the West Central-Southwest District tournament Friday and Saturday. Four teams won Saturday evening – Bonney Lake, Prairie, Mount Rainier and Kennedy – to guarantee themselves a berth in the March 10-13 state tournament. Four teams were eliminated, leaving eight clubs still battling for the remaining four state slots.
Tonight’s White River-Auburn Mountainview winner will secure one of those state berths but will still play district games Friday and Saturday, both to help with seeding purposes. If the Hornets win tonight, they will play at 6 p.m. Friday, again at Clover Park, against either Capital or Union.
The Hornets find themselves in tonight’s do-or-die situation following a 64-58, Saturday night loss to the Prairie Falcons at Auburn Riverside High.
The game provided dramatic highs and lows for White River. The lows consisted of defensive lapses that allowed the Falcons to score the final 15 points of the first half then rattle off 14 unanswered points in the third quarter. The second outburst put Prairie ahead 49-28 with 2 minutes, 18 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
Things looked bleak for the Hornet faithful, but White River was about to mount a ferocious rally that made up nearly all of the 21-point deficit.
“It’s too bad we dug ourselves such a deep hole,” Gibson said. “We missed assignments in our defensive rotations and they made us pay for it.”
For all the miscues on the defensive end during the game’s first 22 minutes, the Hornets clamped down during the final 10. The Falcons were held without a field goal in the fourth quarter and hung on for the victory with some clutch shooting from the free-throw line.
Trailing by 21 points, the Hornets started their march in the final two minutes of the third period, receiving a hoop from Kennedy Hobert, a free throw by Carly McCutchen and a 3-point bomb from Brooke Paulson.
The momentum clearly moved in White River’s favor during the first four minutes of the final quarter, when Paulson nailed three more buckets – two of them from 3-point range – and Sabra Sproul added two hoops of her own. Trailing 52-46, the Hornets continued to chip away, with Cassidy France and Sproul scoring near the hoop, sandwiched around a pair of Paulson free throws.
Hitting just enough from the stripe, Prairie clung to a 54-52 lead with 2:40 remaining. Things got wild and wooly the rest of the way, with each club making mistakes and hitting free throws. At one point, the Falcons made nine in a row from the line, sealing the victory.
Paulson nailed a 3-pointer with six seconds on the clock, giving her 15 points for the fourth quarter and a game-high 23. Sproul joined her in double figures, scoring 11.
