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

Connell -- Cerna 2-2 2-2 8, Knight 5-10 3-4 13, Eppich 0-1 0-0 0, Booker 0-0 0-0 0, Koelzer 3-10 0-0 7, Hadley 1-3 1-2 3, Quinton 0-0 0-0 0, Bennett 0-0 0-0 0, Pierson 0-0 0-0 0, Wood 6-14 1-1 13, Lyle 5-5 0-0 10, Cottrell 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-45 7-9 54.

East Valley (Yakima) -- Alexieff 1-6 0-0 2, Mohsenian 2-6 3-4 9, Lee 3-7 4-8 11, Price 0-3 0-2 0, Bigby 0-0 2-2 2, Jacobs 3-7 3-4 9, Valicoff 0-1 0-2 0, Huntington 4-6 2-2 12, Stickney 6-6 3-5 15, Reid 0-1 0-0 0, Komstadius 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-43 17-29 60.

Connell

East Valley (Yakima)

3-point goals--C 3-6 (Cerna 2-2, Koelzer 1-3, Knight 0-1), EV 5-19 (Mohsenian 2-3, Huntington 2-4, Lee 1-4, Valicoff 0-1, Reid 0-1, Price 0-3, Alexieff 0-3). Rebounds--C 24 (Lyle 5, Wood 4), EV 32 (Jacobs 5, Stickney 5, Huntington 5). Assists--C 13 (Hadley 6), EV 12 (Huntington 7). Steals--C 10 (Knight 4, Koelzer 4), EV 12 (Price 4). Blocked shots--C 2 (Knight 2), EV 0. Fouled out --None. Total fouls--C 18, EV 12. Technical fouls--None. Turnovers--C 16, EV 14.

East Valley's girls basketball team was playing 10 hours earlier than it wanted to Saturday, but the Red Devils didn’t seem to care.

After cruising through two loser-out games, East Valley finished the 2A state tournament in fifth place with its third win this season against Connell, 60-54, in the SunDome.

East Valley's Jamie Price defends against
Connell's Michelle Hadley during Saturday's
game for fifth place. The Red Devils won 60-54.

JEFF HALLER/Yakima Herald-Republic

The Red Devils, who were the top-ranked team in the state coming into the tourney, had no problem finding the offense that deserted them in a 36-30 loss to Riverside in the first round on Wednesday. East Valley averaged 55 points per game for the rest of the tournament before finishing with 60 against the Eagles.

“The only thing we didn’t do Wednesday was shoot,” said East Valley coach Robi Raab, whose team finished the season 25-2. “We did everything else. We boxed out. We played good defense. We just couldn’t hit a shot.”

Most of the Red Devils will get to make up for this season’s disappointments next year. Center Kaci Komstadius is the only player East Valley will lose to graduation as the team returns six juniors, three sophomores and two freshmen.

Red Devil center Tana Stickney will be one of those seniors next year. Stickney led East Valley in scoring with 11.6 points per game this season and finished with a game-high 15 points against Connell.

She also was not surprised this Red Devil team battled through the consolation bracket.

“We always have motivation,” Stickney said. “My sister (a former East Valley player) writes us notes and we read one before every game and say a prayer to just get focused.”

After taking care of the Eagles 45-42 and 50-42 earlier this season, the Red Devils needed to be prepared for Connell. The Eagles came out hot, hitting their first five shots to build a 10-3 lead early.

East Valley responded with 3-pointers from guards Arianna Mohsenian and Jessica Huntington to pull back within two, 15-13, at the end of the first quarter.

With Stickney on the sidelines with two fouls for most of the second quarter, the bench kept the Red Devils in the game by trading baskets with Connell to take a 23-22 lead at halftime.

“We just knew they weren’t going to shoot like that the whole game, so we just kept executing our offense,” said Huntington, who finished with 12 points.

With the game tied 27-27 with 5:24 remaining in the third quarter, Huntington scored seven points to help spark a 11-2 run that gave East Valley the lead for good.

The foul trouble provided Stickney with strong legs for the second half. She returned to score 10 points after halftime and helped the Red Devils start the fourth quarter with a 9-0 run to build a 52-37 lead with 4:23 remaining.

Connell finished shooting 48.9 percent from the field compared to East Valley’s 44.2 percent and hit two 3-pointers in the last minute to pull back within six. The Eagles just couldn’t manage to get to the foul line as much as the Red Devils, and they were outscored 17-7 on free throws.

Cydney Knight and Coriann Wood led Connell with 13 points each, and Anna Lyle chipped in 10.

Guard Brittnee Lee was the only other East Valley player in double figures with 11.