No. 4 Arlington’s hot second-half shooting downs Lincoln girls

All week, if the Lincoln girls really needed a reminder of who they were playing in the Class 3A basketball quarterfinals, they could check two places:

▪ Look at the scouting videotape.

▪ Stare in the mirror.

Fourth-ranked Lincoln runs wild, but No. 4 Arlington also plays at a make-the-legs-ache pace.

But in the end, it was the Eagles’ shooting, particularly from long range, that ended the Abes’ championship hopes, 48-33, on Thursday night in the Tacoma Dome.

Arlington (24-1) meets Kamiakin in one 3A semifinal on Friday night at 9 p.m. The Abes (24-2), who had their 22-game winning streak snapped, will play in the consolation bracket in the afternoon.

Serafina Balderas was the only player on either team to score in double figures — 10 points.

It just wasn’t one of those high-scoring affairs. Both teams were sped up by the other, and that led to an enormous amount of turnovers (50 between the two teams).

But for a two-minute stretch at the end of the third quarter, the Eagles finally created a little space on a couple big shots.

Balderas, the smallest guard on the floor at 5-foot, nailed a 3-pointer at the 1:53 mark.

After Morticia McCall missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw situation, Arlington raced the other way — all to set up another 3-pointer.

This time, Sarah Shortt made it to give the Eagles a 32-25 lead with 53 seconds remaining.

“In a tight game, and if we can stretch out and get a lead, the way our defense has been, we feel we have a pretty good shot if we take care of the ball,” Arlington coach Joe Marsh said.

The Abes just never found any shooting touch. They went 8 minutes, 26 seconds without a field goal in the second half. And they committed a season-high 29 turnovers.

“When we talk, we say, ‘Play fast but do not get in a hurry,’ ” Lincoln coach Jamila Jones said. “We got hurried so many times.”

Lincoln made just four of 21 field goal attempts in the second half.

“When you hold that team to 33 points, we are pretty good shape,” Marsh said. “We feel we hold anybody to 33 points, we are going to have a good chance to win a game.”

The Eagles played in the 4A semifinals in 2013, losing to Mead.

This story was originally published March 3, 2016 at 11:13 PM with the headline "No. 4 Arlington’s hot second-half shooting downs Lincoln girls."