Top-ranked Knights put game away in third

By PAUL SHUGAR
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

A small tear to the ACL of La Center senior guard Tanya Baker will make the rest of the Wildcats wonder about what could have been this season.

With Baker and her 20.9 points per game on the bench, No. 7 La Center struggled to get anything going in a 58-40 loss to No. 2 King’s at the 2A state basketball tournament Wednesday in the SunDome.

Sara Mosiman of King's goes up for two of her game-high 19 points Wednesday against La Conner.   JEFF HALLER/Yakima Herald-Republic

“You hate to see any kid, especially a senior who’s had a great career, have it end like that,” said King’s coach Eric Rasmussen, whose team improves to 23-1. “If she had played it might have changed the outcome of the game.”

La Center coach Herm VanWeerdhuizen also was heartbroken to see his star player sidelined by what originally was thought to be a badly bruised knee. The Wildcat coach also is dealing with an injury of his own. He is on crutches after his foot was crushed between two fork lifts at work earlier this year. The injury left him with nine screws in his foot and a hard time trying to get around the bench.

Unlike her coach, Baker can walk around without crutches and has only a slight limp. But VanWeerdhuizen said he would not risk Baker’s potential future as a college player by letting her play and watching her completely tear her ACL.

“I’d give (Baker) my good leg if I could,” VanWeerdhuizen said.

King’s full-court press ended up making the Wildcats wish their coach could have been a leg donor. La Center never led and turned the ball over eight times in the first quarter on its way to 22 in the game.

“Most teams aren’t used to all the pressure,” said King’s guard Sara Mosiman, who scored eight of her team-high 19 points in the second quarter. “We like to keep the ball in the backcourt. Yeah we go for steals, but we try and force them to make mistakes.”

Unfortunately for the Wildcats, Baker usually handles the ball when another team presses. And they watched King’s build a 29-19 lead at halftime.

“(Baker) would have broke that press,” VanWeerdhuizen said. “I honestly believe that. But that third quarter killed us. We came out to start the second half not mentally focused. But I’m proud of them, they never quit.”

The Knights took advantage of the Wildcats’ poor mindset to spark a 12-2 run at the start of the second half and build a 20-point lead, 41-21, with 4 minutes and 46 seconds left in the third quarter.

The big lead allowed Rasmussen to keep his starters on the bench and fresh for a second-round matchup against Ephrata (19-6) at 7:30 p.m. today. No King’s starter played more than 22 minutes and Mosiman needed only 15:59 to score her 19 points.

“It was our hope that we are here for four days,” Rasmussen said. “Hopefully this will help us have the legs for the next three days.”

Danielle Clauson was the only other Knight player in double figures with 12 points and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds.

Guard Brittney Roggenkamp led the Wildcat offense with 17 points, but she struggled to hit her shots going 4 of 17 from the field. Guard Brooke Gaston tried her best to make up for Baker’s absence. She averaged only 2.1 ppg this year, but scored 14 to round out La Center’s players in double figures.

The Wildcats will have to fight their way through the losers’ bracket to earn another trophy. They took sixth last year and will meet Woodland (18-6) at 12:30 p.m. Thursday.