Frazier’s valiant effort not enough as Peninsula falls in state regional round to Mt. Spokane, 52-48

Peninsula’s season came to an end in the regional round of the Class 3A state tournament at Mount Tahoma High School against Mt. Spokane on Friday night, but it certainly wasn’t from a lack of effort from Seahawks’ junior Belle Frazier.

Frazier, the South Sound Conference’s Most Valuable Player, did everything in power to will her team to victory, but it still wasn’t enough, as Peninsula fell to Mt. Spokane, 52-48.

Frazier scored 27 points in the loss, snagged 10 rebounds, had two assists and three steals, and was already thinking about next season after the game. She said she felt like this is just the beginning for the Seahawks.

“I can feel it my veins,” Frazier said. “I’m just excited. I’m already looking forward to next year.”

Peninsula struggled to defend Mt. Spokane’s Alyssa Powell, who finished with a team high 23 points, and Aspyn Adams, who scored 20 points. In total, Mt. Spokane made 10 3-pointers.

“It’s tough when we’re trading twos for their threes,” Frazier said.

First-year Peninsula coach Mike Schick, who guided the Seahawks to a 21-5 record this year, said the team knew it was going to be a challenge stopping the outside shooting of the Wildcats.

“We knew Adams could hit those shots,” Schick said. “They’re not good shots, so most of the time, I’d be happy giving those up. But with her, I don’t know if it’s something special she has inside of her or if she practices those, but it seems like the higher degree of difficulty shot she has, the more it goes straight in. (Powell) had a big night tonight, too. It seemed like we were just one step late tonight.”

For Peninsula, shooting woes kept the Seahawks playing from behind the entire game.

“It was tough,” Schick said. “We tried to preach attacking the basket but we settled for a lot of outside shots. We didn’t shoot all that great. Credit to them, they came in with a great scouting report. They tried to take away Belle, for the most part. They were ready to send double and triple teams at her anytime she got into the key and leave open some other girls. They rolled the dice and came out on top tonight.”

Despite the constant double and triple teams, Frazier still managed to score 27 points. It’s no surprise to Schick, at this point.

“She’s fantastic,” Schick said. “She does everything she can. Her willingness to win is unmatched. I’m biased about it, obviously. But she just wants it so much.”

Despite the loss, Schick was proud of the improvement his team showed over the course of the season. It was the first Peninsula girls basketball to make the state tournament since 1989.

“To be honest, I did have high expectations,” Schick said. “But this exceeded my expectations. I knew the girls had it in them, it’s just tough coming in as a first year head coach, trying to change so much, so quickly. So I wanted to do a few things that I thought would get this program going in the right direction. We have a lot of players coming back this year. They’ll be hungry, ready to go. We really want to start building it from the feeder program, all the way to the high school. I’m excited for what the future holds with this program.”

This story was originally published February 23, 2018 at 11:41 PM with the headline "Frazier’s valiant effort not enough as Peninsula falls in state regional round to Mt. Spokane, 52-48."