Washougal defense ends White River’s season with 40-34 OT victory in 2A state regional

The White River High School girls basketball team has reached the state tournament 16 of the past 18 years.

The Washougal Panthers have only been here one other time — 1983.

But the Panthers defended the fifth-ranked Hornets with the tenacity and poise of a perennial state contender. They held White River to 14 points in the second half and overtime to rally for a 40-34 victory in the loser-out regional round of the 2A state tournament Saturday at Puyallup High School.

Washougal (19-5) wore down White River (22-4) to the point that the Hornets had a difficult time even crossing half court.

“That’s our style,” Washougal senior guard Raeann Allen said. “We’ve been taught since we were really little that defense wins championships. Our goal was just to defend, defend, defend.”

Allen, who finished with nine points, looked more like Ray Allen, the former Seattle SuperSonic, when she drove to her right, found some room at the free-throw line and rose up for the jumper that gave Washougal a 36-34 lead with 38 seconds remaining in overtime.

Those were the first points either team had scored in the extra period.

And they were all the Panthers needed.

White River’s final two points of the game came on Kendall Bird’s bank from the left wing with about two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

“I think we just lost composure,” White River coach Chris Gibson said. “We got a bit rattled.

“I was really pleased defensively. We did some things that were really good defensively. But offensively we missed some easy stuff that really hurt us.”

The Hornets won the 2A South Puget Sound League title and last week the 2A SeaKing/West Central bidistrict title, though Gibson said they knew Washougal was a tough draw in order to get to the Yakima SunDome.

When asked about his thoughts on the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s seeding process for state regionals, Gibson, who also is White River’s athletic director and the 3A/2A SPSL co-president was visibly displeased.

“How about I decline to comment?” Gibson said.

“I think these were two of the top six teams in the state playing right here.”

White River led 20-11 at halftime.

But Washougal took a 28-27 lead with less than six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter on Beyonce Bea’s free throw.

Then Bird had an answer.

After White River’s Sydney Andersen connected on her fourth 3-pointer of the game, Bird drove left and hit a contested left-handed bank shot. She followed two possessions later with another, this one over two defenders and a third who was helping, to put the Hornets ahead 34-29.

Bird scored a game-high 15 points; Andersen had 14.

“She (Bird) is a (heck) of a player,” Washougal coach Brian Oberg said. “She is a beast. But we felt pretty good about our little freshman (Bea) going against her. She may be skinny, but she is a strong kid.”

Alyssa Blankenship scored 12 points to lead Washougal. She hit a pair of free throws to cut the lead to three in the fourth quarter before Lindsey Thomas hit a left-wing 3-pointer — her lone field goal of the game — that tied it at 34 with 55 seconds to play.

“Every other one is going to go in. She just picked the right one,” Oberg said. “When I’m standing behind her and I tell her to shoot it, she makes every one. So it’s obviously my fault when she misses the other ones.”

Then all Washougal had to do was hold White River scoreless in overtime.

“Just looking at their body styles, they are big. I thought we could gas them,” Oberg said. “We’ve had several games like this, so I thought if we could hold on and get to the fourth quarter or overtime, I just felt like our footwork was going to do it. We worked on footwork all week and it really paid off for us. They couldn’t get by us.”

2A Girls

Shorecrest 59, Franklin Pierce 24: The Cardinals were held to less than 10 points in all four quarters in the season-ending defeat..

Franklin Pierce (18-7) trailed 14-5 after the first quater, and the Scots (15-10) then strung together back-to-back 20-point quarters to put their lead out of reach.

The Cardinals’ Alexius Foster finished with a team-high six points, and Emoni Hubbard added five.

No. 4 Ellensburg 65, River Ridge 32: River Ridge trailed 36-15 at halftime on the way to a season-ending loss. The Hawks finished with a 19-11 record.

This story was originally published February 27, 2016 at 9:42 PM with the headline "Washougal defense ends White River’s season with 40-34 OT victory in 2A state regional."