Girls state basketball: Top-seeded Mead runs away from North Thurston in 3A; Gonzaga Prep falls to 4A No. 1 Camas

Mead has played on the final day at state the past two years, bringing home third- and fifth-place trophies.

The Panthers, Greater Spokane League champs and ranked No. 1 in the state in both the media poll and RPI, earned the top seed to state for the second time in the past three years – and they have their eyes on an even bigger prize.

Step one was Saturday’s opening-round game against eighth-seeded North Thurston.

As they’ve done all season, the Panthers turned defense into offense and wore their opponent down in the second half to pull away for a comfortable margin of victory.

Addison Wells Morrison scored 21 points, Teryn Gardner had 14 and Reese Frederick added 11 and the top-seeded Panthers (24-1) beat eighth-seeded North Thurston (19-2) 68-46 in a State 3A opening-round game at West Valley High School.

The Rams had just 30 points after three quarters.

Mead advances to a quarterfinal Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at Tacoma Dome. North Thurston faces an elimination game on Wednesday at 9 p.m.

“It was a roller coaster, I feel,” Mead coach Quantae Anderson said. “At times we looked really, really good. And other times we didn’t look up to our standard of basketball. But overall, that’s a team that scores a lot of points and we held them down.

“Defense travels, and we hope that it travels over to the West Side.”

“I think we have a lot of work to do, and we can show a lot more than we showed today,” Gardner said. “But I think we came out strong, we came up prepared and we knew what we were getting into and we were just ready to go.”

Morrison scored seven points in the first quarter, Gardner added a pair of 3-pointers and Mead led 18-13. Mead continued to generate turnovers in the second quarter but had trouble making shots. Still, the Panthers scored enough in the paint to maintain their lead and were up 33-24 at halftime.

Morrison, the only 6-footer on Mead’s roster, scored 11 in the half – most coming down low.

“We’ve been working on her growing down there,” Anderson said. “And just getting comfortable with her back to the basket. Each game, it’s more and more. She is a dynamic scorer. And she’s so long. If they play a guard on her she’ll post up, and if it’s a big she’ll go around them.”

Mead opened the third quarter with a 9-2 run, with Miah Cyr and Caroline Spink hitting 3s. The lead reached 20 with 2 minutes left in the quarter on a Frederick layup off a nifty underhanded pass by Gardner.

The Panthers held North Thurston to six points in the quarter and led 53-30 after three.

“Halftime, we talked about just being where we are, and it showed in that third quarter,” Anderson said. “We took a big leap defensively. And again, that’s just another quarter where we were able to wear teams down and they started making some mistakes and we capitalized on them.”

“We pressured the ball, we were flying around,” Gardner said. “If we do well on defense, shots are gonna fall eventually. We’ve just got to keep that defensive pressure on all game.”

4A

Camas 53, Gonzaga Prep 31: Riley Sanz scored 15 points, Kierra Thompson added 12 and the top-seeded Papermakers (18-6) beat the eighth-seeded Bullpups (19-5) in an opening-round game at Battle Ground HS.

Aylah Cornwall scored 13 points for Gonzaga Prep, which faces Lake Stevens in an elimination game Wednesday at 2 p.m. at Tacoma Dome.

2A

Prosser 49, Clarkston 43: Herbie Wirght scored 18 points, Diedra Phillips had 17 points with 18 boards and the fourth-seeded Mustangs (20-5) edged the fifth-seeded Bantams (23-1) in an opening-round game at Kamiakin HS.

Kendall Wallace scored 13 points and Eloise Teasley added 12 for Clarkston, which faces 12th-seeded Enumclaw in an elimination game Wednesday at 12:15 p.m. at Yakima Valley SunDome.

West Valley 48, Port Angeles 41: Chloe Deharo scored 27 points, hitting 11 of 16 from the line, and the 14th-seeded Eagles (14-9) eliminated the 11th-seeded Roughriders (17-8) in an opening-round game at Tacoma CC.

West Valley advances to an elimination game against third-seeded W.F. West on Wednesday at 9 a.m. at the SunDome.

1A

Deer Park 42, Bellevue Christian 35: Ashlan Bryant scored 15 points and the Stags (24-0) beat the Vikings (22-2) in an opening-round game at West Valley.

Deer Park advances to a quarterfinal on Thursday at 9 p.m. at the SunDome.

Lynden Christian 59, Lakeside 51: Ella Fritts scored 16 points and the third-seeded Lyncs (18-7) beat the sixth-seeded Eagles (19-5) in an opening-round game at Lynden HS.

Ayanna Tobeck scored 14 points and Rylee Darnold had 13 for Lakeside, which faces 11th-seeded Montesano in an elimination game Wednesday at 3:45 p.m. at the SunDome.

1B

Crosspoint 53, Almira/Coulee-Hartline 29: The fourth-seeded Warriors (23-3) beat the visiting fifth-seeded Warriors (14-8) in an opening round game at Tacoma Community College. ACH will play Garfield-Palouse in a loser-out on Wednesday.

Waterville/Mansfield 56, Oakesdale 33: The third-seeded shockers (5-2) beat the visiting sixth-seeded Nighthawks (17-4) in a opening round game at Wenatchee High School. Oakesdale plays Lummi Nation in a loser-out on Wednesday. 

Garfield-Palouse 53, Pateros 36: Elena Flansburg scored 18 points and the twelfth-seeded Vikings (10-6) defeated the visiting thirteenth-seeded Billygoats (18-6) in an opening round game at Cheney High School. The Vikings will play the fifth-seeded Warriors next Wednesday in the round of 12.