The W.F. West student section finished the Bearcats’ 2A District 4 quarterfinal matchup against Ridgefield the way most probably came to the gym thinking they would — chanting “I believe that we will win” as the clock expired on a 62-43 victory.
Took a bit of a winding path to get there, though.
“I liked the perseverance,” WFW coach Kyle Karnofski said. “I think that’s the word of night — perseverance, to be able to fight through, battle through some of that adversity. Playoffs are different. No one’s going to just quit and roll over and back down, because seasons are on the line.”
The Spudders certainly didn’t quit, after the Bearcats jumped out to a 21-6 lead after a quarter of play. A few long 3-pointers and a bit of a W.F. West collapse in the second quarter saw the No. 4 team out of the 2A GSHL cut the gap down to just two at halftime against the 2A EvCo champions, and another slow offensive quarter in the third kept things a bit too close for comfort for the heavily-favored hosts.
“We knew that they would go on a run eventually, and they’d try to punch us in the mouth,” sophomore post Julia Dalan said. “We knew we couldn’t let that change the game, and we had to do what we’re best at.”
Come the fourth quarter, the Bearcats found it. Two early possessions went straight to Dalan, the first leading to free throws and the second getting an easy bucket to get the lead back out to 10 points. From there, the defense settled in, holding the Spudders scoreless for the first six and a half minutes of the quarter, W.F. West went on a run, blowing the gap back out to 20 with a track meet.
Dalan finished with 23 points, nine of which came in the fourth quarter. All the way back in the first half, she unknowingly made history, breaking W.F. West’s single-season scoring record of 432, which Kim Magnan set all the way back in 1986. As soon as the final horn sounded, the WFW coaching staff was waiting with a ball and an announcement piped in over the loudspeaker.
“They had told me nothing about that,” Dalan said. “It caught me by surprise… They told me to stand on the line, and I was like ‘Oh no, what did I do?’ It was a surprise. It was a good surprise, though.”
Dalan currently sits at 445 points and is averaging over 21 per game with games to go this season. The sophomore also racked up 15 rebounds and six blocks for good measure.
Up until the fourth, though, it was another sophomore leading the charge offensively for the Bearcats, with Grace Simpson scoring all of her 19 points in the first three quarters, cutting to the hoop as the Spudders dogged Dalan all night long.
“She got a lot slashing, which is great for her,” Karnofski said. “She’s played well as of late. She’s still learning those concepts as a wing because growing up she wasn’t always a wing, but we thrust her into that spot, and she’s done great all year for us. There were times tonight where she saved our butt.”
Lena Fragner pitched in 12 points, and Morgan Rogerson scored seven. Amanda Bennett finished with just one, but sparked just about everything on offense all night. The sophomore point guard, who was asked to single-handedly beat Ridgefield’s full-court pressure for most of the night, dished out nine assists, the majority of which came on full-court darts to get the Bearcats out in transition.
“I love working with Amanda,” Dalan said. “She’s an awesome player, she’s an awesome teammate. Most of the time if we got a rebound and passed it up to her, or they had scored, it was like ‘Get out of her way, let her do her thing.’”
Now, the Bearcats will get a weekend to prepare for their district semifinal matchup; they’ll face Mark Morris at Black Hills next Monday. W.F. West downed the Monarchs by 29 points back on Dec. 20.
“It’s a great start to the postseason,” Dalan said. “It definitely gives us a ton of confidence, and obviously, we only have to win one more game and we’re going to Yakima, and we’re excited for that.”
