MONROE — If Tuesday’s girls basketball game between Snohomish and Monroe turns out to be a preview of one of the semifinals of the 4A district 1 tournament on Saturday, what a game it will be.
The Panthers outlasted the Bearcats 33-31 to claim the No. 2 seed in the district tournament, which includes a first-round bye. Monroe takes the No. 3 seed, meaning they will face either Mariner or Mount Vernon on Thursday. If the Bearcats win that game, they will face Snohomish again on Saturday.
“We have a situation where if you win you have a bye and then you come back (to play) and there’s a good chance Monroe comes through, so you’re seeing the same team twice in a row” Snohomish head coach Ken Roberts said. “They wanted to win and we wanted to win, first-round bye or not. It was just a good basketball game.”
But that doesn’t mean the Panthers won’t take advantage of a few extra days to prepare for Saturday’s district semifinals.
“We’ll take a day off tomorrow, so that’s nice,” Roberts said. “We’ve got some kids sick and they’re hurting. A couple of them couldn’t play very long, but they did a good job of giving us what they could.”
Monroe held a 9-4 lead at the end of the first quarter, but 11 points from the Panthers in the second quarter was enough to tie the game at 15 at halftime. Snohomish played much of the first half without leading scorer Madeline Smith, who struggled with foul trouble.
“I think Maddie played five minutes in the first half and that’s tough on us,” Roberts said. “Shaylee (Harwood) was in foul trouble and Darian Rielly was really sick. I could give her two minutes at a time and she was done. It was interesting just managing and trying to get through the second half.”
But the Panthers did it well.
Snohomish scored the first points of the second half to take its first lead since the early moments of the game. Harwood led the Panthers with eight points in the third quarter that helped them build a 27-23 lead going into the fourth.
“She’s always working hard,” Roberts said. “She’s got the ability to get to the hoop on just about anybody. Her biggest thing is just knowing when to and when not to. She thinks she can get every ball in the gym and I kind of told her if you have to dive through somebody’s legs avoiding their feet and another person’s hands that are on the ball then you should probably let them have it that time. You see some of that sometimes, but she’s really throttled that back and takes her opportunities to get the ball now. Without her, we’re not even in that game I don’t think.”
The Panthers led 33-31 when the Bearcats called a timeout with possession of the ball and 7.5 seconds to play in the game. Monroe head coach Matt Chalfant set up a play for sophomore Jadynn Alexander, who came around a screen and had a good look at the basket from the baseline, but her shot was long and Snohomish grabbed the rebound with 0.2 seconds remaining.
“She came around there hard. It was a tough shot,” Roberts said. “You’re going full speed with a lot of hands up there, that’s a tough shot to make. She’s athletic as can be, so you’re always worried.”
Everything about the play was exactly what Chalfant wanted, except for the result.
“The girls executed perfectly,” he said. “I told Jadynn, ‘Do not put that burden on you.’ I kind of equated it to a field-goal kicker. A field-goal kicker misses that big field goal and they don’t win the game and people point, but that’s not why (they lost). So I made sure she understood that. I was happy with the look that we got.”
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