YAKIMA — The W.F. West girls basketball team grew up a whole lot Wednesday on the wrong side of the mountains.
Sure, the Bearcats as a program have seen their fair share of success on the State stage, coming home with trophies seven times in the past 12 years. But this group in particular? One senior, two juniors, and three sophomores in the rotation, none of whom played significant minutes on the court at the SunDome.
Wednesday, that all changed, and W.F. West earned a win that could be the beginning of something big in years to come, beating Renton 57-48. For now, though, the Bearcats will be content to buy themselves two more days in Yakima after sending the RedHawks home.
“Those girls got to dabble in it a bit (last year),” WFW coach Kyle Karnofski said. “Now that they’re here, they’re that next group.”
W.F. West did it in its favored style, pouring the ball down low early and often. But while 6-foot, 3-inch sophomore Julia Dalan, as usual, was the primary target, it wasn’t just to her. When the RedHawks came back to tie the game at 40-40 a minute into the fourth quarter, it was senior Morgan Rogerson getting the ball in for a bucket in the post to give WFW the lead back.
A minute later, the ball found its way to Rogerson again — and again on the next possession. Dalan picked up a basket of her own, before Rogerson got it down low again and drew a foul, sinking both of her free throws. Suddenly, the lead was back to eight points, and from there it was just a matter of sealing the game at the line.
“We’ve been trying to get Morgan the ball for weeks,” Karnofski said. “That’s nothing new, we just did a better job of it if I’m being honest.”
W.F. West’s lone senior finished with 15 points, eight in those decisive three-and-a-half minutes, and added seven rebounds.
“I’m super proud of her,” Karnofski said. “She’s our captain, she’s a great leader.”
Dalan did more than her fair share, leading W.F. West with 19 points, 19 rebounds, and five blocks in the first of what almost certainly will be many huge performances on the SunDome floor.
“It’s pretty cool,” Karnofski said. “She does some special things. She’s going to be a really, really special basketball player in this program. She already is.”
Lena Fragner put in 15 points for the Bearcats, hitting W.F. West’s only 3-pointer of the night with some flare on a half-court heave at the halftime horn. Amanda Bennett dished out seven assists.
That wild shot pushed W.F. West’s lead to 27-17 going into the break, and while the Bearcats got the advantage out to 11 midway through the third, Renton had a run in its back pocket. Over the next three minutes, the RedHawks got things back to within a point, and despite W.F. West finally finding a bit of offense of its own late in the quarter, it stayed there until Renton managed to tie things up in the fourth.
The RedHawks racked up 20 offensive rebounds as a team, and forced 14 turnovers out of the Bearcats.
But despite the situation — at least on this stage — being new to his whole squad, Karnofski said his players never lost their focus down the stretch.
“This group doesn’t quit,” he said. “They’re not going to be someone who gets on one another and panics. We just talked about, ‘What did we do to get here?’ We worked. We worked all year. We did stuff in the summer, we did open gyms, we worked for this, and that was the reason why. We wanted to make sure that we got those two more days.”
W.F. West got those two days. First up will be a quarterfinal against No. 4 Prosser on Thursday afternoon, with either a semifinal or a consolation semifinal after that on Friday.
“This group’s just special,” Karnofski said. “To get two more with them, that’s cool.”
