The Rainier High School girls basketball team fought valiantly to recover from a 14-point first half deficit against Adna, but Karsyn Freeman had other plans in the Pirates’ 50-37 win Friday, Jan. 10 in the Central 2B League opener for both teams.
The senior guard scored 29 points, nearly outscoring the Mountaineers on her own in a packed gym. She helped Adna roar to a 18-6 start through the first quarter before Rainier rallied to quickly make it a one-possession game in the second half. But the Mountaineers could only muster 17 points in the second half, including five in the fourth quarter.
“It’s a tough environment to play in and they came out firing. They got a couple easy ones quick and thought we were inside our heads a little bit too much,” Rainier head coach Brandon Eygabroad said.
Rainier was passive offensively from the jump, especially with Adna’s hounding defense preventing any open looks or easy passes. The Pirates scored the final eight points of the first quarter thanks to triples by Freeman and McKenna Torrey. Freeman also killed the Mountaineers off of backdoor cuts to the basket.
“We were able to run our sets really well today. We are able to get Karsyn loose from a couple sets of them overplaying,” Adna head coach Chris Bannish said.
Eygabroad said those backdoor cuts were “the biggest backbreaker” for Rainier on defense because the girls were prepared for every one of them, but they failed to execute.
“We did not execute our defensive game plan tonight, and when that happens, it’s a double blow because you know it’s coming and you still can’t stop it,” he said. “Communicating on defense is a big one that we need to work on.”
The Mountaineers closed in on the Pirates in the second quarter as Angelica Askey and Brooklynn Swenson came alive from deep. Lexi Beckman’s putback layup shortly before the halftime buzzer sliced a 14-point lead to six, with Adna leading 26-20 at halftime.
Rainier’s offense continued to click into the early third quarter, but Freeman answered every Mountaineers surge, including with a backbreaking triple to beat the third-quarter buzzer.
Trailing 37-32 heading into the fourth quarter, the Mountaineers ran out of fuel. Kaysen Bravo knocked down a 3-point shot 43 seconds into the period to make it a four-point game, but Rainier only scored two points the rest of the way. Meanwhile, Freeman and Danika Hallom put the game to rest with three 3-pointers to close out a 50-37 win. Rainier was held to a season-low 37 points in the loss, shooting just 31% and 2-9 at the free throw line.
“I thought we played passive the whole game. It was frustrating. Our timeouts were about how we have to be an aggressive team. They faceguarded Angelica and that threw us off,” Eygabroad said.
Bannish was proud of his team’s defensive effort against a Rainier offense that typically plays with tempo and earns points in transition. The Pirates forced 19 turnovers in the win.
“I loved it because we scout those things. I saw Karsyn guarding their best player and working just as hard on the defensive end as she was on the offensive end,” he said. “We are able to slow them down. I thought we tamed them pretty well.”
One of the bright spots for the Mountaineers was the season debut of senior guard Bryn Beckman, who has been sidelined with a knee injury. Eygabroad said he hadn’t planned to play her against Adna, but when junior guard Jazzlyn Shumate was injured earlier this week, Beckman’s number was called.
“I didn’t want to do it in this game in this big of an environment, but she’s done everything that she needed to do to get back to being healthy,” Eygabroad said. “I got chills when she went out there. I’m super happy for her and proud of her. I’m excited to see her continue to get her legs back to game speed.”
Rainier (9-2, 0-1 C2BL) will head to Onalaska (9-1) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 15, while Adna (10-1, 1-0 C2BL) heads to Napavine (8-2, 1-0 C2BL) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
