'We Weren't Scared'

Auburn Riverside got pushed to the brink by Skyline, but survived to face another tough challenge, Meadowdale, in the semifinal.

STORY & PHOTOS BY GLENN NELSON

SEATTLE, Wash. - Some discussion exists over the consequences of what happened - or, rather, almost happened - to Auburn Riverside.

One of the three clear pre-tournament favorites, Riverside was pushed into staging "a big fight from beginning to end," as senior post Stephanie Wilber put it. Missing its leading scorer but game beyond imagination, Skyline led for a half and forced the Ravens to pull out all stops to win 63-52. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing depends on one's point of view.

Marelle Moehrle and Hannah Fjortoft had a
relatively leisurely quarterfinal

The positive viewpoint is that such an effort develops "character," which is one of the essential building blocks for state championships. The opposite view would be that you just burned off some legs that you might have applied in, say, a semifinal against unbeaten Meadowdale or in a title tilt against, ah, Chief Sealth.

The latter would be at least an important consideration for Riverside because, as its coach, Adam Barrett, says, "we're going to bring it," in reference to the Ravens' defensive pressure. And against Skyline, they had to bring it and bring it and bring it because the Falcons kept making them and making them and making them.

"I didn't really want to do that," Barrett said, "but we had to. We had to play our best kids and 32 minutes of pressure basketball."

Riverside's semifinal opponents, Meadowdale, meanwhile, soared to leads as huge as 21-2 and 36-12 against Hudson's Bay, went vanilla, played deeper into its bench and sat in a zone, then had enough to hold off the Eagles 69-59. Since his team also pressures and runs, the quarterfinal presented a dream scenario for Meadowdale coach Dan Taylor. His two leading scorers, Eryn Jones and Marelle Moehrle, played only 25 minutes.

"Our goal was to save our legs," Taylor said.

Prep's Lindsey Gummersall challenges Sealth's
Christina Nzekwe inside

The Mavericks did, but they have their own cross to bear. They are 26-0, otherwise known as undefeated.

"Teams that come here with an unblemished mark, you're going to be gunned for," Barrett said. "It's tough to go undefeated the entire season."

Taylor agreed, though obviously his team's goal has to be an unbeaten season.

"It is tough," he said. "If our challenge is to win a state championship, we have to go undefeated to do it. We have to do something no Meadowdale tam has done before - go undefeated the whole season."

Of course Chief Sealth did it last year, albeit with an illegally recruited team. That very same team will have a somewhat academic semifinal matchup against West Valley of Yakima, which barely squeaked into the tournament, then barely squeaked past White River, winning 51-45 in overtime. Sealth, meanwhile,

Sadly, the odd team out of the semifinals is Skyline, which lost its leading scorer, Madison Maloney, during district play, but perservering and, like their KingCo 3A counterparts, Issaquah, plays a style conducive to tournament upsets. The question is how Skyline might have fared if it had taken its shot at Riverside with Maloney, another long, athletic player who added considerable scoring punch. Or, just maybe, it required the sense of urgency her absence presented to muster the effort the Spartans did.

Skyline's Jordan Pelluer wears the number
(22) of injured teammate Madison Maloney

Meadowdale and Riverside obviously will be happy to get through another day, the way Skyline could not. That means they'll likely have to scratch and claw at each other for 32 minutes, the way Lewis and Clark and Kentwood did last week in a thrilling 4A semifinal. The parallels don't stop there, either, because one team, Kentwood, was unbeaten with an elite-level guard (see Meadowdale and Jones), while the other, Lewis and Clark, was a team with a depth of guards and several "character-building" losses (see Auburn Riverside).

Riverside's trump card could be Wilber, who is bound for Arizona State next year. She remained composed during Skyline's enslaught, later saying, "we weren't scared," and was, of course, the one (6-foot-1) matchup that size-challenged Skyline could not answer. She made five of seven shots and 19 of her 29 points during the momentum-switching second half.

Wilber likewise will present the most difficult matchup for Meadowdale. The Mavs have only one player, Cassandra Kosmides, taller than 5-9, so they'll have to fall back on two factors - they've been practicing against boys all year to simulate the size and strength differential, and Jackson was the team that ended Riverside's unbeaten streak and is a team Meadowdale has beaten twice.

The only concern beyond that, of course, is not burning each other out for the Saturday's finale.

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Thursday's Results
Issaquah 47, Capital 36
East Valley 48, Kennedy 47
Auburn Mountainview 53, Bellevue 41
Mount Vernon 57, Lakes 49
Auburn Riverside 63, Skyline 52
Meadowdale 69, Hudson's Bay 59
Chief Sealth 60, Seattle Prep 36

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Friday's Schedule< br> Issaquah vs. East Valley, 9:00 am
Auburn Mountainview vs. Mount Vernon, 10:30 am
Skyline vs. Hudson's Bay, 12:30 pm
White River vs. Seattle Prep, 2:00 pm
Semi: Auburn Riverside vs. Meadowdale, 4:00 pm
Semi: West Valley vs. Chief Sealth, 5:30 pm
* Semifinals at Bank of America; all other games at KeyArena

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Thursday's Top Guns
Stephanie Wilber, Auburn Riverside, 29 points vs. Skyline
Jazmine Foreman, Hudson's Bay, 28 vs. Meadowdale
Alyssa Shoji, Issaquah, 25 vs. Capital

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Thursday's Glass Cleaners
Ashley Grater, East Valley, 18 rebounds vs. Kennedy
Chioma Amaefule, Auburn Mountainview, 17 vs. Bellevue
Savannah Palomarez, White River, 14 vs. West Valley
Andrea Goins, Kennedy, 13 vs. East Valley
Kelly Brons, White River, 13 vs. West Valley
Erin Richardson, West Valley, 12 vs. White River
Brittany Tillman, Lakes, 12 vs. Mount Vernon
Chene Cooper, Lakes, 10 vs. Mount Vernon
Sabrina Squires, Mount Vernon, 10 vs. Lakes
Erin Olander, West Valley, 10 vs. White River

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