State 3A girls: Mt. Spokane clamps down on defense to beat Garfield in semifinal

TACOMA – Aspyn Adams has accomplished a lot in her basketball career, mostly with the same set of teammates she’s had since the fourth grade.

They’re one game away from adding the crowning achievement to it all.

Adams scored 16 points, Jayda Noble added 12 and second-seeded Mt. Spokane (24-1) held third-seeded Garfield to its second-lowest point total this season to win 52-46 in a State 3A semifinal at the Tacoma Dome on Friday.

Mt. Spokane (24-1) faces top-seeded Prairie (24-2) in the state title game on Saturday at 3 p.m.

“I never imagined we’d be here,” Adams said. “We got to the tournament, and obviously our goal is to win a state championship. We’ve got to play our best, though. We have a good Prairie team in front of us, but we’ll be ready.”

Adams said there’s a special meaning to reaching the title game with this group.

“It means everything,” she said. “We’ve been through it all together. AAU, wins, losses … and now we’re in our final game and it feels great.”

Garfield (23-3), the Metro League champion, averaged 68.2 points this season.

“We feel like we have elite defense,” Wildcats coach David Pratt said. “We talk about that. Defense win championships. And here we are, right? These kids buy into that. They value that.”

“That’s always been our goal. We always talk about defense before scoring,” Noble added. “That’s how we get into the flow of things. That’s how we get into a groove. It leads to hitting 3s and attacking the basket.”

Pratt said a lot of teams talk about winning a state championship, but not as many put the effort in to get there.

“We talked about it last summer,” he said. “We put a plan together in terms of what we needed to do to make sure we get to this pinnacle point.

“We talked about all the things we love about our game. One of those was we’d love to get to the championship game and fight for a title. And here we are.”

Mt. Spokane led 19-13 at halftime, limiting 6-foot-4 Garfield star Dalayah Daniels, who averages 22 points per game.

The Wildcats got up 13 in the third quarter, but Pratt never let his team’s confidence get carried away.

“As a coach, you never think that,” he said. “You just know, I mean, we’ve seen buzzer-beaters this week. We know anything can happen. My continual thinking was, ‘Please let the clock keep going.’ Our kids battled.

“I knew they were going to battle. They battled for every rebound. They battled for every loose ball.”

Noble drew the assignment of guarding Daniels, who finished with 10 points and nine rebounds.

“We knew that we needed someone (other than Daniels) to beat us, and that’s exactly what we did,” Adams said. “We didn’t let them beat us with their strengths.”

“Jayda was unbelievable today in terms of rebounding,” Pratt said. “She worked hard, she kept her poise the whole time.

“She’s leading, she’s rebounding, she’s taking care of the ball and attacking the basket. What else can you ask for?”

Noble has taken a more defensive role this season after transferring from 1A Medical Lake, where she was asked to score. She finished with 12 rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Mt. Spokane outrebounded Garfield 38-17.

“For me, it’s never been about points,” Noble said. “I have to do what’s best for my team, and if that’s not scoring, it’s not scoring.

“It’s getting rebounds for people who can shoot better than me. And I’ll do that, every single play. 100 percent.”

Faith Brantley led Garfield with 22 points on 7-of-19 shooting.