After falling to Rainier in the 2B District 4 semifinals on Tuesday, the Adna Pirates had a sour taste in their mouth.
In the day at school, the Pirates met at 8 a.m. and during lunch to go over what went wrong in that loss. By the end of the lunch period at 12:24, The Pirates had turned the page and were ready to bounce back.
“We got the things out that we needed to work on on our own time,” Adna coach Chris Bannish said. “They gave up something because they care about winning … This tournament doesn’t allow you to sulk. You gotta just move on or you’ll get bit again.”
The Pirates moved on in a big way, first defeating Forks on Thursday and then topping Toutle Lake 52-33 in the 2B District 4 third-place game on Friday at W.F. West.
The Pirates (23-2) and Ducks were neck-and-neck throughout the first half, but the Pirates clamped down defensively in the third quarter to pull away, holding Toutle Lake to just three points in the frame.
By the time the fourth quarter began, Adna had extended its lead to 18.
Bannish said that Adna went back to its “bread and butter” on defense in the third, which included the basics that the Pirates worked through all the way back in November.
“Hedging ball screens. Help side defense. Boxing out,” Bannish said. “It’s the little stuff that you worked on in Week 1 that’s gonna carry forward from here on out … It’s a fine line in this tournament.”
While the defense did more than enough to hold its own, Karsyn Freeman helped the Pirates pull away. After scoring 14 points in the first half, she added 10 more in the third.
Danika Hallom and Gaby Guard added 3-pointers in the second half, and the Pirates led by as much as 25 in the fourth quarter.
The Pirates will take the next few days off while they wait for their seeding and regional matchup, a process Bannish compared to the NCAA Tournament.
“You’re just waiting on other people to decide what you do,” Bannish said.
