East Valley 52, Sammamish 46

By Michael Anderson, Correspondent

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YAKIMA – East Valley’s state trophy express banged into a guardrail in the State 2A quarterfinals at the SunDome on Thursday but reached its first day destination anyway as the Knights defeated Sammamish, 52-46.

East Valley (21-3) will face defending champion W.F. West of Chehalis in tonight’s semifinal at 9. West defeated the Knights in the first round in 2014.

Defending runner-up Mark Morris and Ellensburg meet in the other semifinal at 7. East Valley is guaranteed no worse than a fifth-place finish.

The Knights had little difficulty scoring from anywhere on the floor they chose in the first half. Hannah Burland led the way with 13 points in the half, hitting both East Valley 3-pointers from opposite corners.

The second half was another issue. Sammamish, which hadn’t qualified for state since 1995, grittily worked its way back, getting to within four points early in the fourth period before the Knights extended the lead back out a bit.

“Our adrenaline was pumping pretty good in the first half and we lost a little bit at halftime,” East Valley coach Rob Collins said. “They put (Montana) Hagstrom on Hannah and that was a problem for a while.”

Hagstrom had 17 points in the second half for the Totems, finishing with a game-high 23. Hagstrom also held Hannah Burland to just four second half points, but she led the Knights in scoring with 17.

Collins credited point guard Elle Burland with settling his squad with her 3-pointer from the top of the key with just over three minutes remaining in the game.