Made for March: Borden, Sumner knock off No. 2 Union, advance to 4A semifinals
It doesn’t seem to matter the record or the seeding, the Sumner girls basketball team seemingly finds itself in the same position every year.
The No. 8 Spartans (26-4) held off a furious rally by No. 2 Union (25-3) and scored the game’s final five points in a 58-53 victory in Thursday’s quarterfinals. It’s the fourth time in five seasons that Sumner has advanced to the semifinals of the 4A state tournament.
Sumner will face No. 6 Lake Washington at 5:30 p.m. on Friday with a spot in the championship game on the line. The Spartans are looking to advance to their third championship game in the last five state tournaments and trying to do it as an eight-seed in back-to-back seasons. The Spartans previously made the championship in 2022, falling to Woodinville, and in 2025, falling to Davis.
Junior Kawehi Borden started slow in Wednesday’s loser-out win over ninth-seeded Auburn. The Tigers held Borden scoreless in the first half before she came alive for 15 in the second, leading her team to a 51-40 win.
There were no slow starts for Borden on Thursday. She led her team with 27 points, scoring 14 in the first half on 6-for-9 shooting. She finished the game 12-for-18 from the field.
“We goes as she goes,” Sumner head coach Katie Hyppa said of Borden. “She’s a heck of a player, obviously, so I know there is a lot on her. But today I was really proud of her. (She was) just being confident and attacking in the middle.”
In order to come out with the win, Hyppa and the Spartans had to try to do something to stop Union senior guard Brooklynn Haywood, who entered Thursday’s game 100 points behind former Cashmere star Hailey Van Lith for the all-time lead in career scoring for a Washington high school player.
“Hats off to Brooklynn,” Hyppa said. “She’s a heck of a player. She’s obviously earned all the accolades. Credit to her, she’s had a heck of a career these last four years.”
Haywood finished with 32 points on 10-for-23 shooting, but they were a hard-earned 32 points.
“We knew coming in that we had to have a game plan and ultimately it came down to executing it,” Hyppa said. “I thought we did a pretty good job of it. She still got her 32, but there were times that we were trying to put the ball in the hands of other kids. If we were going to lose that game, we wanted it not to be to her single-handily, which she almost willed her way to.”
It wasn’t just Borden scoring the big buckets for Sumner. Senior guard Kessa Nohr scored her only points of the game on a baseline runner with just over a minute remaining that gave the Sparts the lead for good. Junior Raymiah Jackson added 12 points, including three big free throws in the final second that helped secure the victory.
“Sometimes you, sometimes me, always us is what we say,” Hyppa said. “That was true today.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2026 at 6:10 PM.