On a night when the Todd Beamer Titans desperately needed a clutch 3-pointer to help swing momentum or quickly cut a large deficit in a short time, they were without their best long-range weapon.
With sharp-shooting freshman Quinessa Caylao-Do sidelined with her arm in a sling, the Titans came up short against a balanced Arlington team on Friday night in a Class 4A state regional game at Puyallup High School, suffering a season-ending 50-42 loss.
“She’s a big part of our offense and a big part of our defense,” Beamer coach Cory Alexander said of Caylao-Do. “She’s our spark plug.”
Caylao-Do fell on her elbow in the West Central District championship game loss to Mount Rainier on Monday. While the injury didn’t look bad at the time, Alexander said, her elbow started to swell up the next day.
“It probably hurt her more than everybody else that she couldn’t play (tonight),” he said.
After falling behind early in the fourth quarter to Arlington (20-4), the No. 2 seed from the Wesco Conference, the Titans put on a late rally to make things interesting. Trailing 42-30 with 5 minutes, 40 seconds left, Beamer trimmed it to 44-41 with 1:13 left after Nia Alexander converted on 3-point play. But the Eagles didn’t panic and hit their free throws in crunch time, going 4-for-4 from the line in the final minute.
Beamer (20-6) hit a season-low one 3-pointer on the night, a shot by Bria Rice with 1:20 to play. The lack of a threat from the outside also wore on junior post Megan Huff, who was bombarded by two defenders down low nearly all night.
“We miss (Caylao-Do) a lot because her 3s help out so much,” said Huff, who still finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds. “It helps out the post, too, because then they have to close out on the shooter. Those were some big girls (in the post).”
Alexander, a freshman, finished with 15, while Rice, also a freshman, added seven for Beamer.
“This is a young team and we’re definitely going to be back,” Alexander said.
Seven different players scored for Arlington, led by freshman Jayla Russ’ 15.
Mount Rainier 69, Kentridge 50: The Chargers put up a fight against the top-ranked Rams — for a half. Kentridge (14-12) trailed 35-31 at halftime before falling apart in the third quarter. The Rams opened the third quarter on an 11-3 run, pushing the lead to 46-34 after Aqueelah Williams knocked down a baseline 15-footer with 2:55 left.
“They had nothing to lose,” Mount Rainier coach Bob Bolam said of the Chargers. “They had us on our heels for a while.”
Brittany McPhee led the way for Mount Rainier (25-1) with 29 points, which included a 13-of-16 performance from the free-throw line. Jordan McPhee added 11, and Williams finished with 14.
“Hopefully this is a wake-up call for us,” Bolam said. “We had too many turnovers.”
Alicia Dugan scored 19 points for Kentridge.
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