Friday's Girls Basketball: Beas Too Much for Bearcats in District Finals

LACEY — The Bearcats did not repeat as District 4 champions here Friday night.

But, as coach Tom Kelly pointed out afterwards, the loss didn’t mean the end of their season, much less the world.

The Bearcats led into the third quarter before coming up short, 54-48, against Washougal. Given that W.F. West lost to the Panthers, 77-48, back on Nov. 30, Friday’s close margin was a marked improvement.

“I think it’s real impressive,” Kelly said. “We’ve become a pretty good team. There’s a few glitches here and there, but we’re a heck of a lot better now than we were at the beginning.”

On Friday, though, sisters Beyonce and Skylar Bea were too much for the Bearcats to overcome. Beyonce, a senior headed to the University of Idaho next year, scored 22 points with 10 rebounds, while Skylar added 14 points and 14 boards.

“That Beyonce Bea is as good as it gets,” Kelly said. “You can tell she’s been in the gym. She’s put some time in, she’s very strong, and she’s got a nose for the ball.”

The Beas scored nearly all their points in the paint, and the Bearcats were able to keep pace — and led for most of the first three quarters — until Washougal started hitting from long range.

McKinley Stotts buried a three with just under two minutes left in the third quarter to put the Panthers up 33-30 and give the eventual district champs their first lead since the first quarter. The bucket occurred during a 6 ½ minute span in which W.F. West didn’t hit a field goal, and the Panthers used that to put together a 12-2 run and go up 37-31.

The Bearcats clawed to within two points on two occasions in the final four minutes, but triples from Savea Mansfield and then Kiara Cross pushed the Panthers back up by five each time.

Madi Haakenson scored inside with 22 seconds left to cut the lead to 51-46, but after a missed Skylar Bea free throw Beyonce Bea grabbed the rebound, drew a foul and hit both shots to make it a seven point game with 20 seconds to go.

It was the Bearcats’ seventh appearance in the district finals in the past eight seasons, with championships in 2014 and 2018.

“I just told (the team), we went through a lot of things and we were real close there,” Kelly said. “We could have won this game. We could have won the district title, and everything’s not so bad.”

Haakenson finished with 11 points for W.F. West (17-6). Annika Waring led the Bearcats with 12 points, on 5 of 8 shooting, with a team-high nine rebounds, and Courtney Bennett added 11 points.

It was the first district championship for Washougal (19-4), which finished third in each of the last three seasons.

Both teams will advance to the regional portion of the State 2A playoffs, with next week’s matchups dependent on the WIAA’s final RPI standings.