TACOMA—The underdogs almost did it again.
The Glacier Peak girls basketball team got a buzzer-beating layin to force overtime — mirroring the one the Grizzlies scored in their District 1 championship win over Shorecrest — only this time Kamiakin held off the Grizzlies in the extra session to advance to the Class 3A state semifinals.
The 55-50 defeat Thursday at the Tacoma Dome, sends Glacier Peak into the consolation bracket during the school’s first trip to the state tournament in its three-year history.
“It was kind of déjà vu,” Glacier Peak coach Brian Hill said of the last-second shot that extended the game.
The difference this time was the Grizzlies, who were ranked eighth out of eight teams in the quarterfinals by the Tacoma News Tribune, needed a furious comeback just to get to that point. The Grizzlies used a lot of energy of their energy to dig themselves out of a big hole.
“We were gassed at the end,” Hill said. “You could tell we were really tired.”
So tired that they had no answer for the Braves’ Kassy Larson.
The senior post, playing with a torn ACL suffered in November, abused the Grizzlies down low despite her limited mobility. In the final minute of regulation and overtime, Larson scored nine of her game-high 21 points. She finished with 10 rebounds, seven of which came on the offensive end.
“We were throwing whatever we could at her and she was still getting rebounds and still getting points,” Hill said.
The day seemed to start positively enough for Glacier Peak. Both teams were cold in the early going. There were three turnovers before either team even attempted a shot. Peak scored first and built an 8-5 lead while both teams overcame the jitters.
Larson scored the first two field goals for the Braves and once they got a little confidence by grabbing a few steals, they went on a 13-0 spurt that spanned the first and second quarters. The Grizzlies turned the ball over 27 times — 16 in the first half.
Kamiakin’s defense kept the Grizzlies from any kind of rhythm and the Braves slowly built their biggest lead of the game, a 39-27 edge with five minutes and 18 seconds to go in the fourth quarter.
The starting Glacier Peak junior backcourt tandem of Taylor Rasmussen and Katie Hawkins combined for nine turnovers and two assists and just a single point at halftime, hamstringing the Grizzly attack. Hawkins attributed it to the team being overwhelmed by the new environment.
“We were forcing everything and we were too short on everything,” Hawkins said.
“We were just all way too nervous.”
A normally reliable free-throw shooter, the junior point guard missed five of her first six free-throw attempts.
Olivia VanDlac, playing in her only trip to the state tournament, almost single-handedly staved off the loss for Glacier Peak.
Not only did the senior forward hit consecutive 3s to trim the deficit to 40-36, but Hawkins admitted VanDlac’s makes were what got her out of her funk.
“I just knew that I had to do something and my teammates were telling me to shoot,” said VanDlac, who finished with 10 points.
Hawkins, who finished with a team high 12-points and seven rebounds, scored the next three buckets for Glacier Peak, including a three-point play and suddenly the Grizzlies tied the score at 43.
On the next possession, Larson’s putback with 4.4 seconds to play set up the last-second shot.
After inbounding the ball to midcourt and calling timeout, Hill set up a play that used a VanDlac 3-point attempt as a decoy, leaving Torrey Hill wide open for the bucket as the buzzer rang throughout the dome and the large Glacier Peak contingent rejoiced.
Becca Smith scored four of her 11 points in overtime but the rest of the team was off the mark.
“They played great,” Hill said of his players. “This game doesn’t take away from our season. We had a great season.
“We still have tomorrow.”
Glacier Peak plays Kennedy Catholic, which lost to Prairie Thursday, at 9 a.m. today in a loser-out contest.
At the Tacoma Dome
Kamiakin 8 14 11 12 10 — 55
G. Peak 8 5 14 18 5 — 50
Kamiakin—C. Nelson 13, Beach 0, Oord 2, S. Toure 8, K. Toure 9, K. Nelson 2, Miller 0, Larson 21. Glacier Peak—Hawkins 12, Smith 11, Rasmussen 6, Gaffney 0, Hill 7, VanDlac 10, Gere 4, Fausey 0, Weathersby 0. 3-point goals—K. Toure 1, Smith 1, Rasmussen 1, VanDlac 2. Records—Glacier Peak 15-10 overall. Kamiakin 19-6.
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