There was a fire in Granger’s girls basketball team that burned as hot as ever Saturday night.

Maybe, as long as the night turned out to be, too hot.
Flirting with the tournament record with their barrage of nine 3-pointers in the first 2 1/2 quarters, the Spartans nearly buried top-ranked Seattle Christian in the Class 1A state championship game.

But not quite.

The Warriors survived a 14-point second-half deficit, managed to force overtime, and finally prevailed over the tiring Spartans 55-53 in just the second overtime game in the 33-year history of the tournament.

SC’s 6-foot-2 freshman Katie Collier, who started out suffering the same fate as other tall girls against Granger’s short but rugged defense with just one point in the first half, broke out for 14 of her 15 points after the break and sank four foul shots in overtime.

Collier’s older sister Melissa, a 6-foot senior who battled the flu and a 101-degree temperature, made 8 of 14 shots for 18 points.

And it was barely enough.

That’s because Granger was in a shooters’ zone like no other out of the gate, casting in nine of its first 15 shots from 3-point range — four by tournament MVP Janae Klarich, three by Italia Mengarelli and two by Emily Carpenter.

But after Klarich pitched in her 11th trey in two days for a 41-28 lead with 4:41 left in the third period, fortunes turned. The Spartans scored 11 points the rest of the way and went 0-for-12 on 3-pointers.

“If I was the other team I’d be thinking they can’t shoot like that forever,” said Granger coach Andy Affholter. “I was hoping our adrenaline would get us through, but down the stretch we just got a little tired.”

Seattle Christian coach Bob Kickner, whose 26-1 team has been ranked No. 1 most of the season, watched his Warriors give up five 3-pointers and 23 points in the first quarter.

“A fantastic start. I don’t know what they shot, but it felt like 90 percent,” he said. “We figured with the law of averages, maybe they’d slow down. We were just hoping for Klarich to finally miss a shot.”

Clawing its way back from Granger’s blitz, Seattle Christian took its first lead of the game at 50-48 on Lexi Peterson’s 3-pointer with 3:10 left in regulation. Mengarelli hit a back-door layup at the 2:30 mark to tie the game, and both teams missed chances in the final minutes.

Actually, the Spartans appeared to have a shot at the win when Kara Kogle fouled out of the game with two seconds left while trying to grab an offensive rebound. But it was only the sixth foul on the Warriors in the second half — and first in the fourth quarter — so there was no one-and-one opportunity.

“I think it’s still been a dream season for us,” said Mengarelli, a sophomore guard who scored a game-high 19 points and was named the all-tournament second team. “It’s hurts to be so close, but we just couldn’t finish it. Maybe in a couple weeks we’ll feel better about it. Or maybe not until our next game.”

The 6-2 Collier, who also grabbed 12 rebounds, made 4 of 6 free throws to start the overtime as the Warriors pushed out to a 54-50 lead.

“We knew going in we should have a size advantage, but we weren’t using it (in the first half),” Kickner said. “We needed to go more to our interior post offense. Katie really stepped up. My kids gutted it out.”

Junior Ashlee Reddout, who joined Mengarelli on the all-tournament second team, collected nine points, eight rebounds and six assists.

“Late in the game we just couldn’t get a defensive rebound when we needed one,” Affholter said. “We weren’t getting rewarded for our effort. We were making them take the shots we wanted, just missing the rebound.”

Granger had a 17-14 advantage on the boards in the first half, but it switched to SC’s favor in the second half, 25-15.

“Tonight, tomorrow, the next day — it’ll still be tough to take,” Affholter said. “But hopefully they’ll see what they accomplished. They played for the state title.”

“Their coach (Kickner) told us afterward how much he respected our effort,” Mengarelli added. “That’s what we wanted, to be respected.”