[ t o u r n e y t o w n . c o m -- 2005 Class 2A state tournament ]

Eatonville -- Hill 1-2 2-4 5, Heacock 1-2 0-0 2, Stead 0-2 0-0 0, Norman 1-3 0-0 2, K. Hallman 0-4 0-0 0, Painter 1-8 0-0 3, Umpstead 0-0 0-0 0, Carlman 1-6 2-3 4, McCulloch 0-4 4-6 4, C. Hallman 1-3 0-0 2, Morris 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 6-35 8-13 22.

East Valley (Yakima) -- Alexieff 3-9 2-2 9, Mohsenian 4-5 2-2 11, Lee 5-7 1-1 13, Price 2-8 1-1 6, Bigby 0-6 0-0 0, Jacobs 2-7 0-0 4, Valicoff 0-1 0-0 0, Huntington 2-7 0-0 4, Stickney 2-3 0-2 4, Reid 0-0 0-0 0, Dorsett 0-1 0-1 0, Komstadius 0-2 2-2 2. Totals 20-56 8-11 53.

Eatonville

East Valley (Yakima)

3-point goals--E 2-13 (Hill 1-2, Painter 1-4, Heacock 0-1, Carlman 0-2, C. Hallman 0-2), EV 5-23 (Lee 2-4, Mohsenian 1-1, Price 1-4, Alexieff 1-6, Valicoff 0-1, Huntington 0-3, Bigby 0-4). Rebounds--E 24 (Painter 7), EV 45 (Price 10, Mohsenian 8). Assists--E 3, EV 11 (Huntington 3). Steals--E 10 (Hill 3, Carlman 3), EV 7 (Jacobs 2, Huntington 2). Blocked shots--E 0, EV 0. Fouled out --None. Total fouls--E 13, EV 14. Technical fouls--None. Turnovers--E 20, EV 19.

Arianna Mohsenian’s eyes got bigger and she looked at East Valley teammate Brittnee Lee to mull over the prospect.

“Oh, wow,” she said ominously, considering the possibility of a third game, with the state fifth-place trophy at stake, against CWAC South archrival Connell on Saturday should both teams take care of business on the court Friday. “We haven’t looked that far ahead.”

That athletic truism and coach’s bromide was made even more profound for the Red Devils on opening night, when they could manage just 30 points in a late-night, first-round loss to Great Northern League power Riverside. That put East Valley on a lose-and-you’re-done urgency, one that showed Thursday in their 53-22 thumping of Eatonville.

The Red Devils scored the game’s first 12 points, had scoring bursts of 11, 9 and 7 points, played stifling defense and generally washed away the memory of the previous night’s setback.

“This is way better than yesterday,” grinned Lee, who scored 10 of her game-high 13 points over a four-minute span of the third period.

That went without saying, considering that the Red Devils had shot less than 25 percent on Wednesday. They had looked tentative attacking the basket against Riverside’s New Mexico-bound 6-2 center Angela Hartill, not following through on their shots.

“After that we knew we had to pick up our heads and get motivated,” said Mohsenian, the Red Devils’ heady freshman guard. “We had to concentrate on our finishing (shots).”

Mohsenian and Lee did plenty of that Thursday, combining to shoot 9-for-12 for 24 points. The rest of the team still shot a subpar 25 percent (11 for 44), but the overall picture was definitely better for the tournament’s de facto home team.

“Hey, 35 percent (overall), I’ll take that,” Raab said. “We still didn’t shoot the basketball from the 3-point line as well as we’re capable. We’re averaging 32 percent on 3’s for the season. We just haven’t hit our stride here.”

On Thursday, though, they looked more like the team that had won its first 22 straight than the one that lost the next two.

“I talked it up as good as I could last night (in the postgame team meeting),” Raab said. “I told the girls, you have to earn your respect each and every year. It doesn’t come with the name on the front of your uniform. I know this was the first time out in this setting for a lot of these girls, and it was probably very unnerving some of the younger girls like Brittnee and Arianna.”

On Thursday, the Red Devils dominated the boards 45-24, got 11 assists (three by Jessica Huntington) and held Eatonville to six field goals. Eatonville’s leading scorer on the day, Lauren Hill, had just five points.

The victory moved East Valley (23-2) into a 9 a.m. game (the result of a tournament schedule change) against Woodland (19-6), which throttled La Center 66-33.

“From 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. in 36 hours,” Raab said with an oh-well grin. “Better get ready.”