MONTESANO — Taholah’s girls found an offensive rhythm just in time to complete a district four-peat.
Mary M. Knight’s boys, meanwhile, used a strong inside game to make school history.
Scoring 12 unanswered points in the final four minutes, the Chitwhins captured their fourth successive District IV Class 1B girls basketball title by rallying past turnover-plagued Mary M. Knight, 48-43, Monday at Montesano High School’s Bo Griffith Gym.
Dominating the paint, Knight’s boys earned their first-ever district championship by trouncing Taholah, 60-41, in the final game of the district tripleheader.
King’s Way Christian had opened the program with a 59-47 win over Columbia Adventist in a winner-to-regionals, loser-out boys contest.
Taholah’s and Knight’s boys and girls will all trek to Timberline High School in Lacey for the regional phase of the state 1B tournament this weekend.
On Friday, the Chitwhin boys (13-10) will face Muckleshoot at 6 p.m., with the Owls (14-4) taking on Mount Rainier Lutheran at approximately 8.
On Saturday, Knight’s girls (14-6) will play Northwest Yeshiva at 4 p.m., with Taholah (16-5) taking the floor at 6 p.m. against Lopez Island.
In contrast to last year, all regional games will be winner-to-state, loser-out affairs. The survivors advance to the main portion of the state 1B tourney, beginning March 1 in Spokane.
GIRLS Chitwhins 48, Owls 43
Taholah’s pressure defense helped force an astounding 45 Mary M. Knight turnovers.
Even more astoundingly, the Owls might have been able to survive that — plus at least five missed breakaway layins — had not Taholah finally established an inside presence down the stretch.
Marquel Waugh, the eighth-grade daughter of Taholah coaches Freida and Donald Waugh, had a big piece of the comeback. She scored all six of her points in the concluding surge.
Until then, the Chitwhins had been casting futilely from the outside and were largely been limited to one shot per possession.
“We had to go back to our game plan,” Donald Waugh explained. “We had to regroup and settle down and get back to what we practiced for. The girls dug deep.”
For all their ball-handling difficulties, the Owls led for all but a few seconds of the game’s first 31 minutes — due in large part to a handful of press-beating layins and a tough zone defense.
Down by as many as nine in the first half, the Chitwhins nosed in front, 34-33, on a Trish Dunn basket to open the fourth quarter.
Attacking the basket after breaking Taholah’s press, the Owls responded with a 10-2 run to grab a seemingly commanding 43-36 advantage with 4:43 remaining. Jaycee Valley’s basket off a Miranda Sowle assist to conclude that spurt, however, represented the Matlock club’s final points.
Two Marquel Waugh rebound baskets and a pair of Dunn free throws cut the margin to one with 2:27 left. Then Waugh converted a short bank shot to give Taholah a 44-43 edge with 32 seconds remaining.
Two consecutive Owl turnovers — the second on a Laura James steal — resulted in two James foul shots that extended the lead to three. After Sowle missed everything on a tying 3-point attempt, James nailed two free throws with three seconds left to wrap it up.
“Turnovers at the wrong time. That’s been our biggest problem all year,” Knight coach Lance Valley reflected.
Dunn, another eighth-grader, scored 13 points to share game scoring honors with freshman teammate Rachel Cheney. The latter also amassed 10 rebounds and five steals.
Although bottled up for much of the way, Coastal League MVP James wound up with 12 points and seven steals.
Carlie Adsero and Jaycee Valley topped Knight with 12 and 10 points, respectively. Emily Johnson collected 15 rebounds and Sowle dished out six assists for the Owls.
BOYS Owls 60, Chitwhins 41
Coastal champion Mary M. Knight has beaten Taholah three times by double-figure margins this season. As in the first two meetings, Monday’s contest was decided close to the basket.
With a starting front line that measures 6-foot-5, 6-3 and 6-3, the Owls did a number on the Chitwhins in rebounding. With good ball movement, they were also able to free up their forwards and posts for short jump shots.
The three front-line starters — Eric Johnson, Chase Robecker and Sean Sexton — tallied 14, 13 and eight points, respectively. Six-one sixth man Nick Dierkop also scored 14.
“They’re big,” Taholah coach John Brings Yellow acknowledged with a smile. “Every single time we play them, we have a hard time defending their bigs. Mary M. Knight has come a long way, they deserve it.”
For the most part, the Owls were able to avoid getting caught up in the rapid tempo the Chitwhins desired.
“We wanted to go at our pace,” Owl coach Tim Diggle said. “Let them beat us, not (have) us beat ourselves.”
Outscored 18-3 in the second quarter, the Chitwhins trailed by 19 when Robecker hit two free throws to open the second half.
Creating some turnovers, the Chitwhins trimmed the deficit to 35-24 midway through the third quarter when they sandwiched baskets by Ronnie Tadios-Tahkeal and Jimmy Smith-Kramer around a Wade Purdy three-ball.
Even though Tadios-Tahkeal went on to score 13 of his game-high 22 points in the fourth quarter, Taholah never was able to reduce the margin to single digits. When the Chitwhins rallied, the Owls generally responded with a rebound basket.
Smith-Kramer, who canned a couple of 3-pointers in the early going, contributed 10 points. Andrew Mail had five rebounds and Cleve Jackson five assists for the Chitwhins, who shot only 26 percent from the field.
GIRLS
Tah 6 15 11 16 — 48 MMK 15 7 11 10 — 43
Taholah (48) — James 12, R. Cheney 13, Dunn 13, T. Cheney, Waugh 6, Vitalis, Walther 4, Northup. FG — 20-69 (.290). FT — 7-22.
Mary Knight (43) — Valley 10, Sowle 4, Johnson, Adsero 12, Frost 5, Kiliz 3, Snyder, Dierkop 3, Cook 6. FG — 18-46 (.391). FT — 5-17.
BOYS
MMK 13 18 11 18 — 60 Tah 11 3 12 15 — 41
Mary Knight (60) — O’Neil, Robecker 13, Willey 10, Johnson 14, Sexton 8, J. Pais, Thompson 1, Dierkop 14, A. Pais, Diggle, Adsero. FG — 21-54 (.389). FT — 17-20.
Taholah (41) — Jackson 5, Smith-Kramer 10, Tadios-Tahkeal 23, Markishtum, Mail, Purdy 3, C. Anderson, H. Anderson, Eselin, Garza. FG — 14-54 (.259). FT — 8-13.
