Victories in two of their final three games will guarantee the White River High girls a second consecutive South Puget Sound League 3A basketball championship.
Through games of last week, the Hornets led the pack with a 12-1 league mark, followed by the 10-3 Bonney Lake Panthers and the 9-3 Sumner Spartans.
Making things interesting is the fact that White River faces those two challengers down the stretch. The Hornets challenge Bonney Lake Thursday and Sumner Tuesday, then finish the regular season by taking on rival Enumclaw Feb. 12. All three games will be in the White River gym.
Winning league titles in nothing new for the White River girls, who have claimed 10 in the past 13 seasons.
Awaiting the top five regular-season SPSL 3A teams is a crossover series against teams from the Seamount League. Games will be played Feb. 19 and 20 at Foster High School. The format has the SPSL 3A’s No. 1 team playing the Seamount No. 1; the No. 2s will battle, and so on down the line. The top four pairing are for seeding purposes in the following district tournament; the 5 vs. 5 contest will have the winner getting the No. 9 seed into district while the loser is eliminated.
If White River claims the SPSL 3A title, the Hornets will play Kennedy, the Seamount champ, most likely the evening of Feb. 20.
White River had little trouble maintaining its league lead last week, defeating Franklin Pierce 60-32 Friday night and whipping Lakes 76-44 Feb. 26.
The Hornets jumped on Franklin Pierce early, using a big 20-point second quarter to take a 31-11 advantage into the locker room at halftime.
Brooke Paulson and Sabra Sproul scored 12 apiece to lead White River, while Megan McKune added 11.
The easy victory at Lakes provided some sweet revenge and the Lancers had handed the Hornets their only league loss.
“We got off to a great start,” White River coach Chris Gibson said, adding that shooting 55 percent from the field makes things go smoothly.
Gibson said his crew learned something from the Dec. 15 loss to Lakes – namely, that nothing can be taken for granted. “You can’t just put ‘White River’ on your chest, walk out and expect to win games,” he said.
The second time around, the Hornets left no doubt which was the better team. White River led 43-20 at the half and, at one point, built a 40-point cushion.
The team was led by four in double figures, including a season-high 26 points from McKune. Sproul added 17, Kelsi Tyler had 12 and Paulson chipped in with 11.
The only bit of bad news surrounding the Hornet program was a concussion that sidelined freshman Kennedy Hobert for two games. She has been cleared to play, however, and Gibson expects she will see action Thursday.
