Lincoln keep rolling, cuts district-title nets. Now how about those state-championship nets?

Kondalia Montgomery just finished cutting down a portion of the net at Puyallup High School.

Then she started thinking about those nets in the Tacoma Dome, the ones you get to cut down after winning a state championship.

“I want those ones really bad,” she smiled. “I think we can make it. Most definitely.”

If she and the Lincoln High School girls basketball team keep playing like this, that’s not such a hard thing to imagine.

The third-ranked Abes shut down No. 5 Bethel for a 51-43 victory after trailing at halftime on Saturday, earning their second 3A West Central/Southwest bidistrict championship victory in the past three season.

And this came after Lincoln (23-1) defeated No. 2-ranked Prairie on Wednesday.

Lincoln has the fewest losses of any team in the 3A classification entering next week’s state tournament, where Lincoln would enter at No. 1 in the WIAA’s RPI rankings and would play for a bye into the 3A state quarterfinals against West Seattle. Both teams would be guaranteed spots in the Tacoma Dome since both are ranked in the top eight.

“This team is good. They are really good top to bottom,” Lincoln coach Jamila Jones said. “The more we believe that and trust that, we’re going to be awesome.

“This team is really good.”

And they are really good at locking up defensively.

This 43 points Bethel scored as the most Lincoln has allowed in its four wins in the district tournament, and the most it has allowed since a 67-47 win over Wilson on Dec. 15 – more than two months ago.

This was the Abes’ third win over Bethel this season, led by the always-sharp defensive play of 3A Pierce County League MVP Kondalia Montgomery and PCL defensive player of the year Faith Brantley.

But Lincoln has so many other weapons. Like this strong, 6-foot-3 freshman Sharayah Johnson, who scored a team-high 15 points, while 6-foot-2 senior Ashia Donahue scored 10.

“Ashia has been balling her tail off like the past 10 games,” Jones said. “Faith has been doing what she does, and we have two freshmen who are going to be really solid and a junior and a sophomore who are track stars and lock-down defenders. I love these kids.”

But Bethel jumped ahead in the second quarter behind its freshman point guard, Esmeralda Morales. She scored 14 of her game-high 18 points in the first half as the Braves took a 27-24 lead into halftime.

But then that Lincoln defense – Bethel scored five points in the third quarter as the Abes took a 38-32 lead into the final period

Brantley had a crucial play in with about 4:16 to go. She appeared to be contained on Lincoln’s baseline by Bethel’s full-court press, but she weaved her way through two defenders, crossed up another near half court and finished with a floater to give Lincoln a 46-34 lead and deflate the Braves.

Then Johnson cleared out a defender for an inside bucket to push it to 50-38 later.

And a Bethel squad that normally shoots 43 percent from the floor made just one 3-pointer in the game.

“If you would tell me we would only have one …” Bethel coach John Ainslie said before stopping to pause. “Give them credit. The thing about Lincoln is they don’t quit. We didn’t quit, either, but Lincoln plays some tenacious defense. They really play hard on the defensive end.”

Tiarra Brown added 15 points for Bethel (21-3), which has the No. 11 spot in the WIAA’s RPI rankings despite having just three losses – all against Lincoln.

That had Ainslie rightfully confused afterward. Because that means Bethel has to play a loser-out game in the regional round of state instead of being guaranteed a spot in the Tacoma Dome, like the top-eight ranked teams get.

Meanwhile, Gig Harbor (18-6), which is No. 2 in the WIAA’s RPI rankings, lost against Bethel, 55-47, in Wednesday’s district semifinals. But Gig Harbor is guaranteed a spot in the Dome, while Bethel isn’t.

“The RPI system sucks,” Ainslie said.

Though, if Bethel wins its yet-to-be determined game next week, it would be in the Tacoma Dome.

This story was originally published February 17, 2018 at 11:00 PM with the headline "Lincoln keep rolling, cuts district-title nets. Now how about those state-championship nets?."