by Grant Clark
Special to The Spokesman-Review
East Valley girls basketball coach Rob Collins initially cringed when he was informed how his team fared at the free throw line.
A smile immediately followed.
After all, has missing 24 free throws ever felt so satisfying?
"No, it hasn't," Collins said. "I've had teams miss 24 in a game before. We always lost."
Not this time. In fact, the Knights could have missed a handful more and still walked off the court the victors.
Hannah Burland scored 25 points, Skylar Bastin added 11 and East Valley rallied behind a stingy defense to advance to the Class 2A state tournament for a consecutive year after defeating Liberty of Issaquah, 71-50, in a regional battle at Renton High School on Saturday.
"I thought we had one of the tougher draws," said Collins about having to play the Patriots, who were the West Central District champions. "Defensively, we did a great job."
East Valley (20-3) was able to overcome its 30-for-54 performance at the free throw line by limiting Liberty (17-8) to just 15 percent shooting from the field (10 for 65).
"We knew they played just like us," Burland said. "They like to get out and run. We knew it was going to be a track meet. We just wanted to make more layups than they did."
Trailing by one at the half, East Valley dominated the second half from the start, opening the third quarter on a 14-2 run as the Patriots made just 3 of 33 attempts from the field after the intermission.
Elle Burland scored 10 points, while Jordan Phelan added nine for the Knights.
Liberty's Cherelle Demps led all scorers with 26 points.
Liberty shot 22 percent (7 for 32) in the first half, but still held a 29-28 lead at the break.
The Patriots chilly shooting from the field did not carry over to the charity stripe as they hit all 14 of their free throws in the first half.
Demps single-handily kept Liberty close early, scoring 16 points in the first half with 12 coming in the second quarter.
The Knights finished sixth at last year's state tournament - the highest placing in school history.
"They got a taste of what it was like last year," Collins said. "I think that experience is really going to help us."