TUMWATER — Sadly, the W.F. West girls basketball team missed out on its top goal Monday.
“We talked about how we wanted to be the first ones to punch our ticket,” WFW head coach Kyle Karnofski said.
Well, Burlington-Edison got a half-hour’s head start on the Bearcats, tipping off its District 1 semifinal against Sehome at 5:30 p.m., while W.F. West had to wait until 6 for its own matchup with Mark Morris in the District 4 semifinals — which turned into 6:20 when the Monarchs’ bus broke down in Castle Rock on the way north.
So the Bearcats had to settle for being the second 2A team to clinch a regional bid. But with the way they went about it, absolutely demolishing Mark Morris 45-13, there weren’t too many complaints to be heard.
“We’ve been talking about defense, we’ve been talking about moving the ball, and my goodness, they executed every part of the gameplan that we had,” Karnofksi said.
Start with the defense, because W.F. West did just about everything perfectly on that side of the ball. Mark Morris managed five points in the first quarter — three of which came on a banked-in buzzerbeater to end the period — and five more in the second. If that wasn’t good enough, the Bearcats then allowed just three points the entire second half, two of which came in the final 20 seconds of the third quarter and one on a free throw with a minute left in the game.
MM’s Isabella Merzoian came in averaging an even 15 points per game to lead the Monarchs; W.F. West held her scoreless, and only let her take one shot after halftime. The next three highest scorers this season for Mark Morris combined for just two points all night.
The Bearcats held the Monarchs to just a shade over 10% from the field, and forced 17 turnovers, nine of which came in the final quarter to close things out with authority.
“That’s what we talk about: if we can play defense, we’ll find ways to score,” Karnofski said.
And when you’ve got a 6-foot, 3-inch center in the middle of it all on offense, ways to score can present themselves rather easily.
W.F. West fed sophomore Julia Dalan from the get-go and didn’t stop all night long. The center scored at least the first two field goals in every quarter for the Bearcats and outscored the Monarchs in every single period.
“Julia is fairly good at what she does, and our group is fairly good at understanding that Julia is pretty good at what she does,” Karnofski said. “When we want to find ways to get her the ball, we get creative. The average GPA of my starters out there is about 3.9, so that helps. They’re really good kids, they’re very smart, they’re very unselfish.”
Dalan went into halftime on 14 points and nine rebounds, and needed just one defensive possession to get her double-double. She finished with 26 points, 19 rebounds, and six blocks.
Grace Simpson posted nine points, and Lena Fragner and Morgan Rogerson both had five, with Rogerson also coming down with 10 rebounds.
Now the Bearcats will get a few days off to prepare for one last district challenge, in a rematch most 2A EvCo fans saw coming. The Bearcats — with their regional bid in their pocket — will take on Tumwater at Hudson’s Bay on Friday in a matchup for the season series with the T-Birds, for seeding, and for the district nets. And they’ll do so with a whole lot of momentum.
“I absolutely love this group,” Karnofksi said. “I can’t say enough good things about them. They are so much fun to be around, they’re so coachable. And right from the start of the year we knew that we could do things, it’s just how are we going to do it.
“Tonight showed that when we execute and we come up with a gameplan, and we just battle… We talk about playing a full 32 minutes, and that was probably one of our most complete games.”
