Gig Harbor earns first-round bye after cruising past Prairie, 53-34

It was difficult to tell on Friday night how the Gig Harbor High School girls basketball team lost to Prairie one week earlier in the district tournament.

This week, at the Mount Tahoma High School gym in the regional round of the Class 3A state tournament, it was all Tides. Gig Harbor rode a huge second half to a 53-34 win over the Falcons to earn a first-round bye in the state tournament next week at the Tacoma Dome.

Prairie’s half-court trap, which gave Gig Harbor some problems in the first meeting, was neutralized this time around.

“We’ve been preparing for it all week,” said Gig Harbor junior guard Brynna Maxwell, who scored a game-high 22 points in the win. “We’ve watched film on it. We were just ready to play.”

Gig Harbor trailed at half, 19-17, but exploded in the third quarter, partly behind Maxwell’s usual strong play, but also with a big contribution off the bench from freshman Meghan Edwards. Edwards finished with 14 points, including four 3-pointers, two of which came on back-to-back trips down the court in the fourth quarter to essentially seal the game for the Tides.

“She was huge for us,” said Gig Harbor coach Megan Murray. “She played absolutely fearless tonight. It’s just what she’s capable of doing. It’s just getting her to do that day in and day out. I knew it was in there. She stepped up tonight.”

Edwards said she’s just doing whatever she can to help the team win.

“I just knew I had to bring a lot of energy,” Edwards said. “My teammates have just been helping me out and giving me a lot of confidence.”

Gig Harbor’s Maddie Willett added 10 points. Gig Harbor took Prairie’s 6-foot-3 junior center Brooke Walling out of the game, for the most part, holding her to 10 points.

“It was a lot of talking on defense,” Maxwell said. “If we weren’t playing team defense, she was going to get easy buckets. We were fronting, had double teams backside. We had good communication.”

Now, Gig Harbor will get a crucial first round bye. Gig Harbor will play its first game on Thursday at 9 p.m.

“It’s huge,” Maxwell said. “Two years, we’ve lost in regionals. We’re really proud. 9 p.m. We’re excited and we’re ready.”

Murray was all smiles after the win.

“It’s huge,” Murray said. “We’ve taken it a step further this year. To not only do that, but to give ourselves a chance and put us in a true bracket. The girls were pumped about that and asking all sorts of questions. I told them to enjoy this one for a day and then we’ll get to all that. I am just so proud of them and just excited.”

This story was originally published February 23, 2018 at 8:43 PM with the headline "Gig Harbor earns first-round bye after cruising past Prairie, 53-34."