State 2B, 1B girls semifinals: Freshman Brynn McGaughy notches double-double as Colfax tops rival Liberty

Colfax’s Brynn McGaughy admits she’s felt a few butterflies in her stomach over the past two days in the Arena.

But that’s understandable for a freshman playing for the first time in the State 2B tournament.

Luckily for the Bulldogs, their 6-foot-2 forward’s nerves haven’t reflected in the box score.

“I’ve been waiting to come here and play for so long, so I just wanted to show up with my best game,” McGaughy said. “I was a bit nervous before the first game, but mostly excited and I think it’s showing in my game.”

McGaughy recorded her second double-double of the tournament Friday with 22 points and 13 rebounds as third-seeded Colfax topped league rival Liberty 74-49 to earn a spot in Saturday’s title game against Warden.

McGaughy had plenty of company on the scoresheet against the Lancers. Three other players scored in double figures for Colfax (21-1). Jaisha Gibb had 15 points and five assists, and Asher Cai and Hailey Demler scored 17 and 13, respectively.

“We love passing and ball movement, and when we get a good shot off because of how well we pass the ball,” McGaughy said.

Cai, a senior who will play at Central Washington next season, was limited in the first half with two fouls but praised her teammates’ ability to still find ways to score without her on the court.

“It really drove everyone to work harder, and it shows that we don’t just lean on one player,” Cai said. “We are such a great offensive team across the board.”

After losing their first regular-season matchup to the seventh-seeded Lancers (20-3), Colfax has won the past three showdowns by seven, 37 and 25 points.

“We just love playing this team because they are our rival and we want to beat them by a big margin,” McGaughy said.

Liberty coach Chris Colvin admitted his team didn’t play its best game but gave more credit to a talented and deep Colfax squad.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, they’re just a difficult team to match up with and although we didn’t play great tonight, they played really well,” Colvin said. “They were just tougher than us and they executed way better than we did.”

Teagan Colvin paced the Lancers with a game-high 26 points and 10 rebounds. Brooke Redder added 10 points.

The Bulldogs turn their attention to second-seeded Warden, which Liberty defeated 62-60 in the regional round.

“They hustle, they are big, they get rebounds and they can shoot it, too,” Cai said of the Cougars. “We just want to hold on to that tradition of winning championships. We won one when I was a manager and it would be fun to be on the court for one.”

The championship game will tip off at 5 p.m. Liberty will play Okanogan in the third-fifth game at 11:15 a.m.

(2) Warden 68, (4) Okanogan 48: Lauryn Madsen hit six 3-pointers and scored 26 points, Kiana Rios notched a double-double and the Cougars outpaced the Bulldogs in the other 2B semifinal.

Rios had 15 points and 11 rebounds, and Rylee McKay added 11 points for Warden (25-1).

Daniele Sparks and Alex Goetz had 11 points apiece for Okanogan (23-3).

State 1B

(3) Neah Bay 48, (2) Colton 41: Allie Greene scored 13 points as the Red Devils (15-3) upset of the Wildcats (21-3) and earned a title-game berth against Moses Lake Christian.

Neah Bay grabbed 22 boards, which turned into 14 second-chance points.

Colton’s leading scorer was Maggie Meyer with 27 points on 8-for-20 shooting. Neah Bay snatched 22 boards and turned those into 14 second-chance points. Colton will play fifth-seeded Garfield-Palouse in the third/fifth place game.

(1) Mount Vernon Christian 38, (5) Garfield-Palouse 32: Hannah Van Hofwegen had 10 points and five rebounds as the Hurricanes (22-3) held off a late push from the Vikings (18-6) to reach the title game against Neah Bay.

Four of the starting five Hurricanes accounted for 33 of their 38 points.

Garfield-Palouse’s Kenzi Pedersen led all scorers with 19 points, grabbing nine rebounds in the process.