A year later, Kentridge gets its revenge against Woodinville in 4A state quarterfinals

It’s hard to beat a team three times, goes the old adage. The No. 2 Kentridge High School girls proved that point in spades on Thursday night.

The Chargers, led by the one-two post punch of senior JaQuaya Miller and junior Jordyn Jenkins, cruised past recent nemesis and top-seeded Woodinville, 55-44, at the Tacoma Dome to reach the Class 4A state semifinals.

“It’s awesome when the kids are just working hard and when they can calm themselves down and play great basketball,” Kentridge coach Brad McDowell said. “I mean, that’s every coach’s dream, that’s what you want.”

Kentridge and Woodinville are developing a bit of a history.

The Chargers fell to the Falcons in last year’s state quarterfinals during Woodinville’s run to the championship game. Kentridge, the 2017 champs, lost to Woodinville again earlier this season — a 72-71 affair at the King Showcase in Kent back in January that went to overtime.

In that game, Jenkins fouled out after committing a charge and then receiving a technical foul for stepping over the opponent sprawled on the court. Tonight, there was no such reprieve for Woodinville.

“I just knew that I had to keep my composure and keep my attitude straight,” Jenkins said. “I knew I had to stay in the game, all four quarters.”

“We were able to stay out of foul trouble, that was a big part of it,” McDowell said. “Being able to work it into the post, our posts really do a good job of working well together.

“Our guards were nice and spaced, and we hit some big shots that kinda kept the lead pushing up and keeping it at least manageable. But, staying out of foul trouble was really the key.”

Jenkins poured in 14 second-half points as the Chargers pulled away in third quarter, finishing with 24 points and nine rebounds. Miller contributed 12 points and 14 rebounds, and Daylani Ballena spaced the floor with a pair of triples to finish with 11 points.

Woodinville tried to make it interesting in the fourth quarter, led by Mia Hughes and her game-high 28 points.

At one point, the Falcons forward scored 12 consecutive fourth-quarter points on a blistering array of slipping, sliding layups, pin-point jumpers and free throws to keep Woodinville within striking distance.

“We talked about wanting to take that final step of kinda that killer — when we’re up, we gotta continue,” McDowell said. “It kind of started to slip there in the fourth quarter, but they settled, and then we refocused and got it back to where it needed to go.”

“(Hughes is) not like a post player-type, but she plays like one,” Jenkins said. “It kind of throws you off. She’s really strong and she really goes up there and takes big power moves.”

Eventually, however, Hughes ran out of gas — and so did Woodinville. Any hope at continuing the rally expired when Jenkins snuffed out a Hughes shot attempt, sending it out of bounds.

“It felt good, because I tend to foul a lot against them — so it was good to just get that LeBron-ness from out of me,” Jenkins said.

Kentridge moves on to play No. 3 Lewis and Clark in the semifinals at 9 p.m. Friday.

For McDowell and his locker room, there was definitely some pleasure in exacting a bit of revenge against the team that eliminated them last year, then grabbed that overtime victory last month.

They just weren’t expecting it this early in the tournament.

“We knew we were going to see Woodinville sometime,” he said. “They’re a good team and we’re a good team. It’s nice to have great competition, I mean that’s what the state tournament is all about.

“We knew we going to see them and we weren’t afraid of the situation, we weren’t worried about it. We handled it.”

TEAM STATISTICS

W – Shooting: 18 of 54 (33.3 percent). Free throws: 7 of 9 (77.8). Turnovers: 11.

K – Shooting: 19 of 45 (42.2 percent). Free throws: 13 of 15 (86.7). Turnovers: 18.

INDIVIDUAL SCORING

W – Morgan Lundquist 5, Mia Hughes 28, Veronica Sheffey 4, Katie Minnehan 7.

K – Daylani Ballena 3, Jordyn Jenkins 9, JaQuaya Miller 12, Tiffani Pham 3, Hana McVicker 2, Martina Lam 3.