Cougars turn back Coupeville for 47-40 victory

By PAUL SHUGAR
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

White Swan forward Sheena Strom couldn’t hold back her tears any longer.

White Swan's Nancy Donato races by Coupeville's Shawna West during their game Saturday. White Swan won 47-40.   SANDY SUMMERS/Yakima Herald-Republic View all photos for this story.

A senior season that had plenty of trials has a great ending and she couldn’t be happier. After missing most of the year to give birth to her child, Sheena Strom returned earlier in the season and ended up helping the Cougars defeat Coupeville 47-40 and take fifth place Saturday at the 1A state tournament in the SunDome.

“It sucks that it’s my senior year,” Strom said.

“I wish it was longer because I had so much fun playing with these girls. You’ll see next year," she told junior guard Andrea Blodgett. "It’s just amazing to me that these girls let me come back and be part of this team.”

White Swan ended up needing Strom down the stretch. She scored all six of her points in the last 2 minutes and 18 seconds to secure the victory.

The Wolves erased a three-point Cougar lead going into the third quarter to take a 38-37 advantage when forward Shawna West scored with 3:57 left. But Shelbi Strom put White Swan back ahead for good with a 3-pointer on the next possession.

From there it was all Sheena Strom, who closed out the game with a three-point play.

“The difference was Sheena Strom,” said White Swan coach Adam Strom, whose team finishes the year at 22-5. “She came to the team late, but she played like a two-time all-league player at this tournament.”

Despite outrebounding the Cougars 43-31, the taller Coupeville team (16-10) ended up not frustrating White Swan like it did to Zillah in a 45-41 win Friday.

The Wolves’ Lexie Black, a 6-foot-2 center, dominated the Leopards with a tournament record 10 blocks and helped hold Zillah to 27 percent shooting from the field. Black finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds for a double-double, but only one blocked shot — Coupeville’s only blocked shot of the game.

Blodgett had no trouble inside with Black. She scored a game-high 17 points on 7-for-21 shooting and went 2 of 5 from 3-point range.

“We’re used to playing taller girls because we’ve played them all season and we’ve learned that we have to adjust to them,” White Swan guard Blodgett said.

Blodgett kept the Cougars in the game with the pesky Wolves, whose biggest lead was three points in the second quarter. Blodgett nailed a 3-pointer with 4:04 left before halftime to tie the game back up at 15-15. After Coupeville scored on the next possession, forward Nancy Donato hit White Swan’s second straight 3-pointer to put her team ahead, and the Cougars defended a three-point lead going into the fourth quarter.

The win gives Adam Strom his first trophy as a coach at White Swan and puts him in elite company with his dad, Ted, who won a eighth-place trophy with the Cougars in 1992. The Cougars have now won two trophies in four entries to the 1A tournament.

Adam Strom said he has a long way to go to beat his dad’s best state-tournament finish of third place when White Swan played in Class B.

“The last thing (my dad) told me (before the game) was the best advice,” Adam Strom said. “He just told me to coach up, especially with these girls.

They’re going to make mistakes, and I have to be a good coach and pick them back up.”

The White Swan faithful got a scare when Donato, a senior who scored 11 points in the game, went down with 7:06 remaining in the third quarter clutching her right eye with blood pouring down her arm.

But what looked like a potential eye injury ended up being only a bad cut on the cheek. She returned to the bench in the fourth quarter to celebrate the win with a gash that probably will require stitches.

“This is the first time I remember Nancy coming out of the game,” Adam Strom said. “Whether it was injury or illness, she always was on the floor playing hard. She would have come out for the last four minutes if she could have had blood on her jersey.”