Pullman left out in the cold

YAKIMA – Realistically, the Pullman girls had a shot against top-ranked King’s Friday night, but they had to do a lot of things right.

They had to defend some talented offensive players, hold their own on the glass against an athletic team, handle a good full-court press and, of course, score.

All told, they left one out, stretching an epic shooting slump into the semifinals, losing 44-24 to King’s at the State 2A tournament in the SunDome.

Meanwhile, Lakeside completed a run through the consolation bracket into the trophy round, moving into the fifth/eighth-place game by knocking out Eatonville 46-39.

King’s 44, Pullman 24: The SunDome’s spaciousness chewed up the Greyhounds again, as Pullman didn’t score a point until junior forward Krystal Smith hit a jumper from the right elbow with 4 minutes, 35 seconds left.

That was in the second quarter.

By then, the Knights (25-2) had run off 19 straight, with points coming from all four of their double-digit scorers.

It wasn’t just shooting, as the Greyhounds (20-5) looked tentative and perhaps a little intimidated.

“I don’t know, we’ve heard so much about them,” Smith said of top-ranked King’s, which featured University of Washington signee Sara Mosiman and played close to 3A champion Chief Sealth before losing by 11.

“Maybe we were kind of scared and it hindered us. The shots weren’t falling, and even though it got better in the third quarter, they were ahead by so much.”

The ugly totals were 16 straight misses (including two free throws) to open the game, which stretched into a 2-for-20 first half and a 23-6 halftime deficit.

Pullman improved in the second quarter, which carried over to an 8-4 advantage in the third, including closing the gap to 11 at 25-14 on Kelli Davis’ 3-pointer late in the third.

“I think we hit the wall a little bit,” Greyhounds head coach Mike Davis said. “We held them to 44 points, and I haven’t seen too many teams do that. They’ve got threats everywhere.”

King’s only was held to fewer points in an early-season loss to 4A Snohomish.

In fact, after the 19-0 start, Pullman was outscored only 25-24 the rest of the way.

“These last days we’ve had a lot of trouble scoring,” said Smith, who led the Greyhounds with eight points. “We usually get through it though, and we started to gain on them but just lost it again.”

Pullman was back within 11 after two Smith free throws with 5:39 left, but a pair of free throws and then a difficult turnaround jumper by Mosiman put it out of reach.

Pullman will play East Valley (Yakima) for third place today at 5:30 p.m.

Lakeside 46, Eatonville 39: The inside presence of junior post Kia Gibson showed up in a big way, as Gibson was 8 of 11 from the field and 9 of 10 from the line for 25 points and 12 rebounds.

“We really had to have Kia today,” Eagles head coach Lora Cummings said. “Only four people scored, we gave up too many offensive rebounds and (Eatonville’s) 3-point shooting has improved.”

Gibson helped Lakeside (19-7) off to a 14-5 start, scoring nine of the Eagles’ first 11, then provided the offense late to close it as well.

After the Cruisers (23-4) rallied to make it a 34-32 game on a long 3-pointer with 4:09 left, Gibson hit a pair of free throws, then had a putback to put Lakeside up six.

She followed her miss for a 42-34 lead with 1:25 left, then sealed the game by hitting both ends of a pair of one-and-one opportunities in the last 20 seconds.

Lakeside is guaranteed a trophy, and it will play for fifth place against La Center (19-7) at 10:30 a.m.