Garfield wins second consecutive 3A girls title with 39-38 victory over Lake Washington

Marvin Hall doesn’t want to think about it. But mention the composition of this Garfield girls basketball team and it brings a smile to his face.

It’s all about the youth movement that fueled the Bulldogs run to a second straight Class 3A state title on Saturday night with a 39-38 victory over Lake Washington in the Tacoma Dome. It’s enough to make others wonder just how big the run could become.

“I just don’t think that far,” Hall, the Garfield coach, said. “But man, I don’t think that far but it makes me excited when you say it.”

The Bulldogs (21-0) lose just one senior from this championship team, Lucille Richardson. She played a total of nine minutes against the Kangaroos (22-5).

That means the vast majority of the contributors to this title are back again for next season in the persons of juniors Malia Samuels and Imbie Jones, along with sophomore Katie Fiso and others.

Those three saved Garfield against Lake Washington, with each scoring a basket during a 6-0 closing run over the final 2:45 of the fourth quarter. The comeback became necessary only after the Kangaroos turned the tables to start the fourth.

That’s when Lake Washington coach Jeff Wilson put his 6-foot-4 defensive force Elise Hani back on the floor. Hani had been saddled with foul trouble for most of the game, picking up three in the first quarter and her fourth in the first two minutes of the second half.

Without Hani on the floor, Lake Washington struggled to get any flow offensively and it opened the middle up for Garfield. Still, while the Bulldogs were thus able to control things, they never got totally away.

“The foul calls are tough,” Wilson said. “Sometimes that’s how the games go. But the rest of the girls battled, they fought, and we survived until we could get Rosa (Smith) and Elise back in there.”

Smith also picked up three quick fouls, which put two of the three senior leaders on the bench instead of on the floor for much of the game. When they came back, it changed everything.

Lake Washington went on an 11-0 run over the first five minutes of the final quarter, turning a 33-27 deficit into a 38-33 lead. But with 2:45 remaining, Fiso drove and got under Hani for a layup.

Samuels followed on the next Garfield possession with a driving layup just beyond Hani’s reach that rolled over the rim and in, and it was a one-point game again, 38-37, with 2:06 left.

That set up Jones, who with 1:10 to go took a pass at the free throw line and went right at Hani, who had to decide whether to risk her fifth foul or play more safely.

“Early in the game, I went in there and it didn’t turn out how I wanted,” Jones said. “I just knew the clock was running down late, we were down and I just had to get a bucket. I got it off the glass and it went in. I knew that (she had the four fouls), too. But she just stayed back and I got the layup.”

Two trips later, with the clock running inside 15 seconds to play, Lake Washington corralled the ball near the baseline. Under heavy defensive pressure all the way up the court, the Kangs got the ball to one of their shooters – Rae Butler Wu – on the left side.

But Wu’s off-balance attempt at a 3-pointer went hard off the back rim and careened away as the buzzer sounded on Garfield’s second title in a row.

“This means a lot to me, because my dad died (of Covid-19) a year ago at this time,” Hall said. “It was a tough time for me, so I dedicated this to him. I got really emotional about it.”