Sumner rides balanced attack past Emerald Ridge in 4A bi-district championship game, 54-36
Much of the talk surrounding Sumner High’s basketball team goes immediately to star twin sisters Alyson and Catelyn Deaver. It’s certainly fair and warranted; they deserve the attention and praise that has come their way.
But the rest of the players aren’t standing around ball-watching, waiting for the Deaver sisters to cook something up. At the end of the first quarter in the West Central III/Southwest bi-district championship game against Emerald Ridge at Curtis on Saturday night, Alyson Deaver — who has put together a dominant season and been one of the best players in the South Sound the past two seasons — had just one point. Despite that, Sumner had already pushed out its lead to 13 points, riding the strong outside shooting of Kaylee Cooper early on.
“I think we played more as a team this game and had girls step up and hit outside shots,” Alyson Deaver said. “Anyone can step up on this team when we need them to.”
Sumner rode that balanced scoring attack to a 54-36 win and the program’s first district title in playing in the 4A classification.
Alyson Deaver eventually came alive, as expected, pouring in a game-high 15 points. Catelyn Deaver scored 11 and sophomore guard Lainee Houillon scored 11 in the win.
“It was a very balanced attack tonight, which is something we love to see as coaches, because we believe in all these kids,” said first-year Sumner coach Katie Hyppa. “That’s a compliment to the rest of the team. They’re used to Alyson having 12 at the end of the first quarter and kind of taking over.
“Tonight, other people stepped up and that’s something that later in the next week, two weeks, we’re going to be grateful for, because we know that we can do it. We love when she puts up those high numbers but she does so many other things off the ball, on offense, defensively, contesting shots.”
The play of Houillon, in particular, allows the Deaver twins to play off the ball and set up in dangerous positions on the floor. The sophomore guard looks like she’s been running the point for the Spartans for years.
“I don’t think there’s a better competitor,” Hyppa said of Houillon. “To me, as a player and a coach, that’s the ultimate compliment. She’s the most competitive kid on the floor any given night and that’s something you can’t teach. She controls the pace, stays poised and she’s still young, too. She does a lot of things for us that don’t even show up in the stat sheet. The ultimate competitor and she’s doing a great job leading this team, even as a sophomore.”
They say it’s hard to beat the same team three times in a season. Don’t tell that to Sumner, which earned the three-game sweep over its 4A SPSL peer on Saturday night.
“We just work really well together as a team,” Catelyn Deaver said. “Our mindset was to come into the game as strong as we could and play our best.”
Emerald Ridge was paced by senior Kali Haizlip’s 10 points. The Jaguars cut Sumner’s lead to 13 by the end of the third quarter, but couldn’t pull within single digits. Still, Emerald Ridge Arvin Mosley liked his team’s effort in the second half.
“We just challenged them to be a little tougher,” he said. “Sumner is just such a physically dominant team and they punched us. They bullied us a little bit, so we had to take a little bit of a breather and respond a little bit better. I just think our girls responded better but we just ran out of juice.”
Sumner goes into the state tournament with plenty of momentum, having won the league two seasons in a row and now the district title.
“We’ve been waiting all summer,” said Catelyn Deaver.
