LaSalle's Molly McGree, left, dives for a loose ball against Colfax's Meagan Teade in the second half Monday.   KRIS HOLLAND/For the Yakima Herald-Republic View the Shootout photo galleries.

La Salle wins battle
of state champs, 38-34
 
Lightning rally in second half to down Colfax
 
By PAUL SHUGAR
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Colfax’s lease in the SunDome finally ran out against the La Salle girls basketball team.

The Bulldogs, winners of the past three Class 1A state championships, had won 13 straight under the SunDome roof, but they couldn’t match up with a Lightning team getting back to its old postseason form. The defending Class B state champs made up for a 10-point deficit at halftime for a 38-34 victory Monday in the Tourneytown.com Shootout.

“I told them during a timeout in the third quarter that it’s nice to have the team clicking again,” said La Salle coach Todd Kent, whose squad improved to 12-2 overall this season. “I knew if we kept focusing on doing the little things right and doing them well that we’d get back to where we were.”

The Lightning have been in search of a quality win this season, whiffing on its first two tries against defending state placers Chelan and Sunnyside Christian — each took fourth in Class 2A and Class B, respectively, last year. In both those losses, some little thing was off and that looked to be the problem once again against Colfax (10-2).

Free throws were the early bane as La Salle went 2 of 11 from the foul stripe in the first half and found itself trailing 22-12 at the break. This caused some discussion among the Lightning players of how best to approach the last two quarters.

“Our goal in the locker room before the second half was we told ourselves we would go on an 8-0 run and pick things up in the third quarter,” said La Salle’s Jasmine Stohr, who finished with 10 points. “We did that, caught up and that helped motivate our defense.”

Stohr started the 12-2 third-quarter run with a three-point play followed by Molly McGree’s three baskets. The energy spilled over to the defense, as the Lightning forced 21 of Colfax's 31 turnovers in the second half, flummoxing a Bulldog offense that had no trouble breaking La Salle’s full-court pressure in the first half.

With the scored tied at 24-24 to start the fourth frame, Theresa Anderton hit a basket to make the score 27-26 with 5:26 remaining. La Salle never trailed for the rest of the game.

No Colfax players scored in double figures.

The Lightning hit its free throws down the stretch to protect the lead. The girls went 14 of 23 from the foul line in the second half, and the defense, which got 20 points from turnovers, never allowed Colfax to mount another run.

The Bulldogs managed only 19 shots in the second half, sinking five to go with 2-for-7 shooting from the free-throw line. It's a problem the La Salle players will spend some time addressing as well.

“I know free throws are a big part of our game,” said McGree, who had a team-high 12 points despite going 2 of 9 from the foul line. “I need to finish those, so it’s definitely frustrating.”

She made up for those snafus with a team-high five steals to slow down the Colfax offense. Meagan Teade had eight points to lead the Bulldogs, who weren’t exactly weak defensively; La Salle shot only 11 of 40 from the field and 0 of 8 from 3-point range.

None of that mattered after the game to Kent. He has watched his players battle what he described as “complacency” so far this season. A hard problem to fix on a team that returns all but two players from its championship squad and is eyeing another title at the Class 2B level.

Playing at its favorite home away from home, Colfax and its championship pedigree might have helped massage some of that out of the Lightning.

“I think complacency is natural,” Kent said. “These girls reached their goal last year and now they have to establish new goals.

“Complacency is natural, especially in high school, and we just have to play through it as a program.”