Backing up its 4A SPSL title from last spring, No. 5 Sumner ready to add more to 'new legacy'

SPANAWAY - Alyson Deaver scored a game-high 28 points and controlled the glass after the first quarter, and the fifth-ranked Sumner Spartans girls basketball team achieved the first of its post-season goals with a 71-61 victory over Emerald Ridge on Saturday night.

The win at Graham-Kapowsin High School gave Sumner its second consecutive 4A SPSL title, and the school’s first in a non-pandemic season.

"This is our first year, where we haven’t had a Covid year, where we’ve won league," said Deaver, a senior. "So it was a big deal to all of us. We’re building a new legacy."

Deaver was one of four Spartans who scored in double figures in the game. Lainee Houillan added 19, while Deaver’s twin sister Catelyn and Kaylee Cooper each added 11.

Here are four takeaways from the Sumner-Emerald Ridge game:

OUT WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE

The win over the Jaguars also secured the top seed out of the 4A SPSL to the District 3/4 bi-district tournament that begins next Friday. Sumner will host the 4A NPSL's No. 3 seed, Kentridge, needing just a single victory to advance to the state regionals.

That win would put the Spartans in line to potentially win a bi-district title. Then there is the quest for a state crown sitting out there.

"We talk about it every day," Sumner coach Katie Hyppa said. "I think there’ve been even like three or four league championships (overall) in Sumner’s history. Not a lot, right. Not a lot. And our goal is to be playing in March. There’s a lot in between."

LONESOME LULLABY? NOT A CHANCE

Challenges like Saturday will work to lift Sumner to those next goals.

Emerald Ridge hit the Spartans in the mouth early, racing to a 9-0 lead to begin the game. The Spartans raced back to tie it, 11-11, with an 11-2 spurt culminated by a Houillan basket with 2 minutes, 14 seconds to go in the first quarter.

But the Jaguars led it 16-11 after one quarter.

Once the second quarter began, the Deavers imposed themselves inside. Houillan and Cooper hit big baskets, and Sumner roared back to take a 36-32 lead at the half. Sumner maintained that advantage through the third quarter, taking a 50-46 advantage into the final eight minutes.

"I think just our ability to keep going and not get down in those moments, really helped bring us back," Deaver said. "We were down (9-0) in the first quarter. I don’t think we were ready for how prepared they were."

A NEEDED CHALLENGE

Sumner never really got away from the Jaguars, despite the final score.

"To me, that’s a two-possession game," Emerald Ridge coach Arvin Mosley, Jr., said. "That’s what I told the girls. Not the points, it was a 10- or 11-point game. But it was a missed layup somewhere and it was a turnover somewhere, that’s just what it was."

Emerald Ridge actually missed two layups, both coming on consecutive tries with the Jaguars trailing 54-51, that could have changed things down the stretch. Instead, after those misses, Catelyn and Alyson Deaver each made a basket to extend the lead.

That forced Emerald Ridge to foul down the stretch, and Sumner converted eight of 10 attempts from the line to close things out.

"They’re a Top 10 team," Hyppa said. "They have fight and they have skill. For us, that’s what we want to play going into districts. It was a good test for us tonight. It gets us ready going into next Friday."

SOMEWHERE OUT THERE

Emerald Ridge also had four players score in double-digits, led by 15 points each from Naomi Senato and Kali Haizlip. What the Jaguars were missing was their point guard, again, as Monique Carter missed her fifth game of the season.

"And we are 2-3 without her," Mosley said. "So she’s the MVP, so to speak, right?"

A second contributer, Alina Sapilak, only played the first half against Sumner. But Moley said they expect to have both back in the lineup when the bi-district tournament begins on Friday with Emerald Ridge hosting the NPSL’s No. 2 team, Kentwood.

"I want to be healthy," Mosley said. "I would love to put our full team out on the court. I don’t know exactly what it looks like. I don’t know if this puts us playing against the No. 1 from the North, the No. 1 from the GSHL. But I’m a firm believer that you’ve got to go through the gauntlet to what you want to be. These girls have lofty goals, and we’re going to have to go through the gauntlet – the Woodinvilles, the Eastlakes, the Camas’s, the Sumner’s again."

(Photo by Doug Drowley)