Perhaps no hole is too deep for the Mead Panthers.

Mead rallied from 11 points down to stop the defending state champion Kentwood Conquerors 74-71.

NOTE: I botched the post last night. Here's the story with a correction. Mead hasn't won state title since 1996. I said in the story published today that Mead hadn't won a state title since 1992. My bad. Rookie mistake!

By Greg Lee

Staff writer

TACOMA – Another big deficit, another big comeback for the Mead girls basketball team.

It seems Mead is driven to add as much spice to its season story as possible.

Trailing 62-51 with about 5 minutes remaining, the Panthers roared back behind standout senior Jazmine Redmon for a thrilling 74-71 quarterfinal win over the defending state champion Kentwood Conquerors in the State 4A tournament Thursday at the Tacoma Dome.

Mead (22-5) meets the winner of Bellarmine Prep/Garfield in the semifinals tonight at 8:30. The final quarterfinal hadn’t started the second half at press time.

Lewis and Clark stayed alive, handling Rogers of Puyallup 69-49. LC (17-10) takes on Edmonds-Woodway (24-3) today at 11 in a loser-out game.

Mead 74, Kentwood 71: Redmon made the front end of a one-and-one with 18 seconds left, then hauled down her own miss moments later. Teammate Taylor Ingebritsen was fouled and she made the first of a bonus, extending Mead’s lead to the final margin with 13 seconds to go.

Sanda Milovic took a 3-pointer that bounced off the rim as the horn sounded.

It was a small measure of revenge for Redmon, who played as a freshman on Mead’s last team to qualify for state. The Panthers lost that year to Kentwood in the quarterfinals.

Now the Panthers are a victory away from playing for their first state championship since they won it in 1996.

“They’ve grown so much this season,” Mead coach Regan Drew said. “I told them in there (the locker room) that ‘I’m proud of you but our story’s still got room. We need this story to keep going’.”

Redmon said that during games most of the time she doesn’t look at the scoreboard. But she admitted that in the fourth quarter she glanced up once.

She wasn’t concerned, though.

“We’ve been down a lot in the season and we know in our hearts that we can come back and win,” said Redmon, who had a game-high 32 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and two steals. “So we dug deep and played the best defense that we could.”

With 4 minutes remaining, Drew called for fullcourt pressure. And if the Panthers didn’t force a turnover, they often rushed the Conquerors in taking a shot. It was as effective as Drew desired.

Mead pulled even at 69-69 when Redmon zipped a long pass to Ingebritsen for a layup with 1:14 to go.

The Panthers took the lead for good when Redmon made a foul shot with :46 showing on the clock.

Neither team could be found guilty for playing much defense from start to finish. But Redmon thought her team played its best defense at the end.

“We got the stops we needed to at the right times,” she said.

The Panthers got key contributions from Ingebritsen, Chenise Pakootas and Kalee Junkermier. Ingebritsen had 14 points, Pakootas had 12 to go with 10 rebounds and Junkermier had 10 points.

And there was one other critical contribution, Drew said. Mead’s bench.

“I saw a lull in my girls in the third quarter,” Drew said. “We talked about ‘girls on the sideline and girls on the floor, you’ve got to believe. I thought our girls on the sideline really helped our girls on the floor believe.”

Lewis and Clark 69, Rogers (Puyallup) 49: The Rams never had a chance.

The Tigers played like they wanted to stay around in the tourney. They made a statement from the opening tip with a 12-0 start. They ended the first half with another 12-0 spurt.

Then in the second half the Tigers didn’t let off the throttle.

Turnovers weren’t an issue as they were in LC’s opener. The Tigers, who had 16 in the first half in their 51-49 loss to Issaquah, had just six against Rogers in the first two quarters.

“It’s the same old thing. Our turnovers were down where they needed to be,” LC coach Jim Redmon said. “They have a goal. They want to stay and they want to trophy.”

Sophomore reserve guard Julia Moravec played particularly well. She and junior wing Hayley Hendricksen led LC with 13 points apiece, and Hendricksen had a team-high eight rebounds. Senior guard Mary Blevins had 12 points and five rebounds.

LC outrebounded Rogers 40-28.

“We’re going to play a good opponent (today) and we’ll just do what we can,” Redmon said. “I just think when you get to this point in the season and you lose that first one (at state) or the second one it’s interesting to see what kind of character you have and what I saw today I was pleased with.”