Napavine's Kenya Lorton drives to the basket during State 2B Girls Basketball Regional action against Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Saturday in Tumwater.
Napavine's Karley Bornstein grabs a rebound during State 2B Girls Basketball Regional action against Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Saturday in Tumwater.
Napavine's Mollie Olson puts up a shot during State 2B Girls Basketball Regional action against Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Saturday in Tumwater.
Napavine head coach Jeremy Landram reacts to a call during State 2B Girls Basketball Regional action against Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Saturday in Tumwater.
Napavine's bench reacts to a call that goes their way late in the fourth quarter during State 2B Girls Basketball Regional action against Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Saturday in Tumwater.
TUMWATER — The line the Tigers had on Lind-Ritzville/Sprague was that the Broncos were big.
Given that bit of information, Napavine spent the last week of practice working on it’s weaknesses — namely, boxing out and rebounding — and then proceeded to wipe the glass clean in a 66-49 win over LRS here Saturday in the 2B girls regional playoffs.
The Tigers are now back in the State 2B tournament, starting Thursday in Spokane.
“It’s awesome,” Napavine guard Kenya Lorton said. “We thought we had a chance last year, and we should have, but we’re just pumped to be there.”
Lorton scored a game-high 28 points, and Napavine outrebounded the Broncos 57-33 while holding 6-foot-2 LRS forward Mallory Kessler to 9 points.
“We heard that they were, like, really tall. Like 6-3,” Lorton said. “And then we came and saw that they weren’t that tall, so that gave us a little more confidence.”
The confidence showed early. Napavine led 17-8 after a quarter, setting the tone in a physical game, with Mollie Olson scoring 9 of her 15 points in the first 4 minutes and Lorton scoring the last 6 of the frame.
“That definitely plays into our hand,” Napavine coach Jeremy Landram, of the physical tone established early on. “Because we do play such a fast pace, that when there’s not as many fouls called, and they’re letting us play, the rhythm of the game tends to be in our favor.”
Olson finished with 11 rebounds, four steals and four assists. Lorton added four steals, and Melissa Lee came off the bench to score 7 points with 10 rebounds and four blocked shots.
Devanie Kleemeyer, Karlee Bornstein and Grace Hamre each snagged seven boards.
Napavine kept the pressure on and stretched its lead to 53-33 early in the fourth quarter, but then failed to hit a field goal for a 3 ½ minute stretch, while LRS went on a 15-2 run to cut the lead to 7 points with 3:31 left in the game.
Olson then dished to Kleemeyer inside for a bucket to end the drought, and after two LRS turnovers in the next minute Lee hit a free throw and Olson stole the ball in the backcourt and got it back to Lee for a 3-point play.
Olson hit both ends of a 1-and-1 free throw situation with 1:23 to play to put the Tigers’ lead back at 15, with a 63-48 score.
The Tigers head to Spokane with a 20-5 record, with three of those losses coming to Wahkiakum and another coming to Toutle Lake — both of whom will also be in the Arena.
“We kind of called this contender/pretender weekend,” Landram said. “There’s eight teams over there, and we’ve played most of them. Everybody’s got as good a shot as anybody. Our goal now is just to be there Saturday and play all three days.”
