CC Women: Red Devils Top Centralia in Premier West Region Matchup

The Red Devils always had the answer.

Centralia came close on Saturday night, in a meeting of the two first-place teams in the NWAC West Region women’s basketball standings. Every time, however, Lower Columbia — and Chehalis product Katie Hankins — managed to respond, and stayed atop the standings with a 65-58 win at Michael Smith Gymnasium.

“We competed tonight. We just didn’t execute as well as I’d like in certain aspects,” Blazer coach Shane Schutz said. “But I can’t discourage how hard we fought, and we put ourselves in a position to win.”

Hankins finished with 26 points on 11 of 18 shooting, and hit a pair of free throws to give the Red Devils a 5-point lead with 51 seconds to play.

Lower Columbia stretched its lead to 10 on a Hankins jumper with 7:43 left to play, but back-to-back buckets by Molly Cooper brought the Blazers back within 6 at 53-47 and prompted a full-court press from Centralia.

The Devils, though, broke the press, and Hankins dished off to Keahi-lele Roy and scored on the next possession to put the lead back at 10.

Centralia, again, rallied, with Sydnie Cole-Vogler sandwiching 3-pointers around an LCC free throw, but Cole-Vogler’s fifth and final foul put Toutle Lake product Bailey Hockett on the foul line with 1:20 left, where she converted 1 of 2 to put the Devils’ cushion at 3.

The Blazers’ 3-point attempt was off on the other end, setting up Hankins’ key foul shots.

Alisha Sorenson added a late bucket for the Blazers, but Hockett went 4 of 4 from the stripe in the last 30 seconds for the final margin.

“Centralia plays so hard, you just know you’re going to be in for a dogfight,” LCC coach Chad Meadors said. “What we did really well tonight was execute. Offensively, we got the shots where we wanted to get them.”

The Red Devils worked out of a zone defense nearly the entire game, forcing 23 Blazer turnovers and making working the ball into the paint difficult — particularly for a Centralia squad with just seven players suited up, five of whom are freshmen.

“We’re still learning, just still trying to find ourselves. It’s been that way the last three or four games, we’re just not in sync,” Schutz said. “I hate to say it, but we’re still trying to find ourselves a bit.”

Susan Kenney finished with 17 points to lead Centralia, on 6 of 9 shooting from the floor.

“Every time she got open, she knocked it down, so credit her for that,” Meadors said. “We just needed to limit how many looks she got, and I think we did that, as much as possible.”

Cole-Vogler tallied 11 with 13 rebounds, and Sorenson added 11 points and seven boards. Katie Whitten tallied five rebounds and five assists, while Tiana Thompson added 8 points, six rebounds and four assists.

The loss drops Centralia to 4-1 in league play (13-7 overall) will host Green River in another West Region matchup on Wednesday.