LAKE STEVENS — Some might call it good defense. Others might call it bad shooting. Most likely, it was a combination of the two that led to the Lake Stevens girls basketball team’s 55-35 win over Kamiak on Friday.
Kamiak made five of its first nine shots and led 13-9 midway through the first quarter. It was all downhill for the Knights from there.
They missed their final eight shots of the period and the Vikings cut the deficit to 13-12 going into the second stanza.
“We settled down a little bit,” Lake Stevens head coach Randall Edens said. “We talked about wanting to run certainly, but if we could just get it down in the half court, especially with our size, we could get some easy baskets. Once we did that, then we started to kind of stretch (the lead) a little bit. I think that was the difference.”
The missed shots kept coming. Kamiak shot 3-for-14 in the second quarter compared to 8-for-16 for Lake Stevens as the Vikings took control of the game.
“I thought we were really focused today on the task at hand,” Edens said. “Maybe early we gave up a few shots to some of their players we wouldn’t like to see, but we’ve done a nice job of making adjustments in games, which can sometimes be tough to do. You want to play to your strengths and take their strengths away and as the game went on, we were much better at that.”
Lake Stevens led 29-23 at halftime behind 10 points from senior forward Emily Vandegrift and nine from freshman forward Kylee Griffen.
The lead continued to grow in the third quarter. Kamiak shot just 2-for-15 in the quarter and The Vikings outscored the Knights 19-7 to extend their lead to 48-30 going into the final quarter.
“I think what’s given some teams some problems is our length,” Edens said. “When you’ve got a 5-foot-11 or 6-foot person come out on the wing, you’re used to having those in (the key). We can put three of those out there and I think that’s been a little bit of a challenge for teams.”
The Knights scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to get to within 13, but Lake Stevens answered with a 7-0 run to put the game away.
Vandegrift led all scorers with 16 points, despite playing limited minutes because of foul trouble.
“We had to really kind of manage the foul trouble,” Edens said. “She’s the person that kind of makes us hum. When she’s on the floor, I think everybody tends to settle down and relax and play. But we got some really, really nice stretches when she had to sit for extended (minutes).”
Griffen chipped in 15 points, eight of which came in the second quarter.
“Early (in the season), we tried to have her as a four or a five, but we pushed her out to the wing and she’s more comfortable out there,” Edens said. “I think the deeper we get into our season, the more you’re getting to see what we see all the time. It’s just a matter of getting comfortable. We’d like to kind of think that she’s in the same mold of another No. 44 (former Viking star Brooke Pahukoa) we used to have running through here not long ago and I think she’s well on her way.”
After making five of its first nine shots, Kamiak made six of its final 49 shots and finished the game 11-for-58. The Knights also shot just 9-for-24 from the free-throw line.
“Give Lake Stevens a lot credit,” Kamiak head coach Brian Norman said. “They played some good man-to-man tough defense. It took us out of a lot of things we like to do.
“We need to execute better and we’ve got to put a lot of those shots in,” he added. “A lot of those are just gimme chip shots right there by the (basket).”
It was a tough week for Kamiak, which also lost on Tuesday to Monroe. The Knights fell from a tie for second place in the Wesco 4A before Tuesday’s game to a tie for fourth after Friday’s loss.
“We’ve got to rebound better,” Norman said. “We’re not a big team. We’re pretty athletic, but we’re pretty young and we’re pretty small. We need to be ferocious on the boards and just kind of reconnect with each other and play good basketball. I think that will help us. We just go back to the drawing board and keep working.”
At Lake Stevens H.S.
Kamiak131075—35
Lake Stevens1217197—55
Kamiak—Tiana Roe 0, Alexie Morris 0, Sarah Payne 11, Tylor Adcock 4, Jenny Stoltz 0, Jaylen Gonzales 0, Katelyn Huguenin 0, Jamie Beirne 3 , Emily Pillman 2, Aliea Marrero 15, Kaiya Larson 0. Lake Stevens—Alex Briggs 3, Emma Smith 6, Kristen Glick 0, Anna Lundquist 6, Ashley Richardson 0, Emily Vandegrift 16, Kylee Griffen 15, Hailey Wilson 9. 3-point goals—Payne 1, Marrero 3, Smith 2. Records—Kamiak 5-4 league, 8-7 overall. Lake Stevens 8-1, 13-2.
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