Vikings win state title

YAKIMA – There are no secrets by the time two teams face each other for the fourth time – and that’s this season.

The Garfield-Palouse and Colton girls basketball rivalry goes back to grade school. By the time they hooked up in the championship game of the State 1B basketball tournament in the SunDome Saturday night, there was much scratching and clawing for every point between these teams that pride themselves on defense.

When it was all over – for good for the eight combined seniors – it was Gar-Pal pulling out a 44-36 win, its third straight this season over its Whitman County rivals, who had had the upper hand throughout most of their high school showdowns.

“Heart,” G-P senior Courtney Shoemaker said. “Dedication and a whole lot of heart.”

Colton opened this season’s series with a five-point squeaker, but in the second matchup the Vikings romped by 21. Gar-Pal had a four-point win over Colton in the league championship.

“It was that big game, when we beat them by 20,” G-P coach Steve Swinney said. “That gave the kids confidence they could play with them. Up until this year, Colton kind of dominated us the last years.”

Despite the defensive emphasis of both teams, the game featured plenty of end-to-end action, but every shot – and nearly every pass – was contested. Rarely did a possession go by without one or more players ending up on the floor.

A 12-1 run that concluded with Bridget Bower’s 3-pointer from the top of the key to open the second quarter gave Gar-Pal (24-4) a 14-5 lead, but Colton (23-4) scored the final six points of the half to trail 17-16. Only one player for each team had more than one basket and all stats were almost even.

Another spurt in the third quarter proved to be just enough separation for the Vikings.

Colton’s last lead was 19-17 after Alisa Moehrle-Druffel scored the first three points of the second half. Then a 9-2 run, started by back-to-back layups by Shoemaker, put Gar-Pal on top 26-21. Colton got back within two late in the third quarter before trailing 33-28, but in the fourth quarter never cut the difference to less than five because the Vikings had an answer for every challenge.

“It’s just experience and knowing how they play; knowing the players,” Shoemaker said. “We knew they were going to get after it hard.”

In the end, Gar-Pal shot just a little bit better (37 percent to 30), took a little bit better care of the ball (14 turnovers to 16) and rebounded better (37-32), especially down the stretch.

“We got killed on the boards,” Colton coach Clark Vining said. “They’re tough inside. They’re big and physical. They took it to us.”

Katie Redman led Gar-Pal with 12 points and 10 rebounds, with Shoemaker and Bower splitting 22 points. All are seniors. Junior point guard Elisha Lopez was named MVP and was joined on the all-tournament first team by Bower, who led the tournament with 20 assists and 20 steals.

Moehrle-Druffel, also an all-tournament selection, led Colton with 13 points and nine rebounds.

Alli Winters of St. John Endicott, which placed fourth, made the second team.

St. John Endicott 56, Pateros 30: Alli Winters hit three 3-pointers on the way to a game-high 15 points as the Eagles (15-14) defeated the Nannies (19-7) in the game for fourth and seventh places.

Kelly Van Lith added 10 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots for the Eagles. Clara Hull led Pateros with 14 points and six rebounds.