Chewelah dashes into 2A title game
YAKIMA – Chewelah girls basketball coach Kevin Mulligan figured his team would capture its first state trophy in school history this week.
Not in his or his players’ wildest imaginations, however, did they think it could be the biggest trophy.
Thanks to their full- and half-court defense, the Chewelah Cougars will take aim on the State 2A championship after handling the defending champ Chelan Goats 57-41 in the semifinals Friday at the SunDome.
“I’m kind of a realist and I knew that we could trophy,” said Mulligan, the Cougars’ first-year coach. “We had a good draw and we knew we’d have to meet Chelan or one of those other top teams. We thought we could make it the first two nights for sure.”
Chewelah (21-4) faces a daunting task tonight when it meets second-ranked King’s (25-1) at 7.
King’s kept it from being an all-Great Northern League showdown, as the Knights toppled the Riverside Rams 56-41 in the other semifinal.
Riverside (20-6) and Chelan (22-4) will face off at 3:30 to decide third and sixth places.
Chewelah 57, Chelan 41
The teams met in a non-league game in December at Chelan, with the Cougars prevailing 42-35.
The Goats never had a chance to avenge the loss after the first quarter. Overall, the Cougars forced 16 turnovers with their 2-2-1 press and 2-3 zone, and they turned Chelan’s mistakes into a 22-8 scoring advantage.
Defense sparked a 13-0 run for Chewelah in the second quarter. The Cougars capped the spurt when Jochelle Schatz got a steal and fed a pass ahead to Nikki Nelson for a layup that put their team ahead 28-15 with 3:20 left in the second quarter.
Although the Goats got the deficit to single digits by halftime (33-24), they couldn’t mount any threat of a comeback in the second half. Chewelah’s defense caused seven more turnovers in the third period and influenced the Goats’ icy shooting.
Chewelah took a comfortable 41-16 lead into the fourth quarter after Chelan shot 1 of 15 in the third.
“The harder we played on defense, it frustrated (Chelan),” Nelson said. “They’re a great ballteam, but I think putting a lot of pressure on the ball really worked.”
Cougar senior post Sarah Scates, playing for a second straight game on a sprained ankle, scored a game-high 15 points. She made two free throws followed by a leaner in the key that gave Chewelah its biggest lead, 53-33 with 3:52 to go.
Scates had three treatments for her ankle Friday. She said nothing was going to stop her or the Cougars.
“We just want it so bad,” Scates said. “We come from last year not placing at all at state – the first time we’d been there – and then we come this year. We really want it so bad. I know I personally just wanted it so bad that I would do anything.”
Playing in the state title game is more than Schatz expected coming into the season.
“We wanted to be league champions,” Schatz said of the Cougars, who shared the GNL title with Riverside.
“Then we got into districts and we wanted to be district champions and cut down the nets. Entering the (state) tournament, we were kind of joking around about cutting down another net. We know this is real now. We want to cut down another net.”
King’s 56, Riverside 41
Rams coach Dave Wood suspected his team had to limit the potent Knights to around 50 points.
As it turned out, the Knights’ 56 points were the fewest they’ve scored in 13 games. The problem was the Rams had to score about 50. But King’s, which posted its 18th consecutive win, wasn’t about to let that happen.
Nothing came easy for Riverside, which opened the game missing its first 12 shots. The Rams’ first basket came with 2 seconds left in the first period when University of New Mexico-bound post Angela Hartill scored on a putback to cut the Knights’ lead to 14-6.
Shooting woes continued to hamstring Riverside in the second quarter. Still, when Dianne Kasinger scored as the Rams broke the Knights’ pressure – one of the few times they finished in transition – Riverside pulled within 20-14 with 2:39 to go before halftime.
But King’s scored the final six points of the half. Riverside made 4 of 26 shots from the field in the first two quarters and finished 11 of 50 overall (22 percent).
“We had some good looks, but we had too many turnovers early,” Wood said. “We thought coming in if we could hang with them in the first quarter we had a good chance. We had some missed opportunities and you can’t do that against King’s.”
The Knights threw a blanket over the 6-foot-2 Hartill. She finished with a team-high 12 points, but only managed nine shots.
Hayley Zevenbergen, who gave up 4 inches to Hartill, frequently fronted the taller Ram as the Knights provided backside help.
“She’s probably the best post I’ve ever played against,” said Zevenbergen, who is headed to Yale to play soccer. “We tried to stay in front (of her) the entire time. Our defense is totally team oriented, so I had help the entire time.”