By Michael Anderson, Correspondent
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YAKIMA – Free-throw shooting and defense decide high school basketball games.
Lakeside’s Eagles put on a clinic in both disciplines in the second half Thursday, defeating defending champion Lynden Christian 43-28 in the quarterfinals of the girls State 1A basketball tournament at the Yakima SunDome.
The Eagles (23-1) will play Zillah tonight in the semifinals at 5:30. The winner advances to Saturday’s 3 p.m. championship game.
The Eagles are guaranteed their first state trophy since 2010. Lakeside won the 2A girls title in 2001.
Lakeside coach Jeff Pietz said after the game he felt that his team would be fine despite trailing a taller Lynden Christian team 24-19 heading into the fourth period.
“We wanted to win the fourth quarter,” he said. “I don’t think many people play defense the way we do.”
The Eagles outscored LC 24-4 in the final 8 minutes. There were 18 fouls called in the period, four of them offensive violations on Lynden Christian. The Eagles hit 10 straight free throws and held the Lyncs to 20.7 percent shooting from the field.
Despite difficulty handling 6-foot-1 Kara Bajema in the first three periods, Pietz was calm heading into the final period knowing his defense had yet to do its best work.
Bajema was every bit as good as advertised, hauling down 12 rebounds and blocking three shots to go with her team-high 16 points. Pietz knew that type of performance was likely, but he said he made a point to remind his squad that LC had to prepare for what the Eagles did well too.
After being bothered by Bajema in the third period – she had six of her team’s 12 points – the Eagles defense held the lanky junior to just one basket in the final period.
Despite not having any state tournament experience on his squad, Pietz said he knew the moment wouldn’t be too big for his squad.
“We never talked about any of that and I don’t think our kids even think about that,” he said.