End of a run? Beamer ousted by youthful Central Valley, 55-37, in 4A semifinals

This could be a while.

Girls basketball in this state is run by one league — the Greater Spokane League.

And for the seventh consecutive season, a school in that outstanding league will play for the Class 4A state championship.

The latest wonder? It is Central Valley, which starts three sophomores and a pair of ninth-graders.

It helps when two of those underclassmen are the extraordinary Hull sisters, who led the top-ranked Bears past No. 3 Beamer, 55-37, in the state semifinals Friday night at the Tacoma Dome.

Central Valley (27-0) will meet Snohomish for the 4A title Saturday at 5 p.m.

Lacie Hull paced the Bears with 18 points against Beamer (23-3), including the last eight points in a 2:05 span of the third quarter. Lexie Hull added 15 points.

Beamer, which lost in the 4A semifinals in the past two seasons, got 10 points from Makenna Woodfolk, the only scorer in double figures.

“I don’t know if it was the moment,” Beamer coach Corey Alexander said. “We were tight instead of being relaxed. I thought we played a little tense.”

For a group with as much experience at the state tournament as the Titans have, it was certainly surprising to see them struggle so badly.

Their stars — seniors Nia Alexander (nine points, 4-of-15 shooting) and Bria Rice (four points, 0-of-9 shooting) — were nonfactors on the offensive end.

As a whole, turning it over 18 times mostly against no pressure seemed to bug Corey Alexander the most.

“It is hard to beat a team like that when they are knocking down their free throws (20 of 24), and we are giving them easy buckets by turning the ball over,” Alexander said. “Kudos to them — they are a well-coached team. The Hull sisters did their thing.”

Oh yeah, those two.

Beamer rallied to tie it at 25-25 on Alexander’s second-chance basket at the 4:56 mark of the third quarter, capping a 7-0 run.

And 90 seconds later, arguably the biggest sequence of the game happened on, of all things, a foul.

With three fouls, Lacie Hull charged into the lane. Woodfolk, also with three fouls, came over to seal off the seam.

Hull collided with Woodfolk — and the Beamer forward was called for a blocking foul.

“I am always worried to get called for a foul, but you can’t be scared to play,” Hull said.

With Woodfolk going to the bench, Hull made both free throws. A minute later, she converted a three-point play. And with 12 seconds to go, she buried a 3-pointer to give the Bears a 37-29 lead.

“I know the times to really start going hard,” Hull said.

Beamer closed it to 38-34 with 6:05 to go on Jahpera Mceachin’s 3-pointer, but the Titans turned it over on four of their next six possessions.

Camryn Skaife’s corner 3-pointer closed the door on Beamer, 45-34, at the 2:36 mark and sent Central Valley into its first 4A title game since 2012.

As for this Beamer group, it leaves behind a winning legacy — and a couple of oh-so-close bids to claim its own 4A title.

“Honestly it hurts,” Rice said. “But it’s going to help us grow.”

Corey Alexander knows it has been a special four-year run. And he also knows over the next few years, the Bears will be one tough out in the state playoffs.

“They look like a young Beamer,” he said.

This story was originally published March 4, 2016 at 8:06 PM with the headline "End of a run? Beamer ousted by youthful Central Valley, 55-37, in 4A semifinals."