West Valley (Spokane) girls down Clarkston in 2A District 8 championship to nab coveted bid
SPOKANE, Wash. — In the tug-of-war over one coveted regional berth, the West Valley of Spokane girls were the last team standing.
The Eagles bombarded Clarkston with 3-pointers early on its way to a 52-43 win over the Bantams in the 2A District 8 championship game on Saturday at the Spokane Arena to force its way to the WIAA regional round.
The Bantams (14-8) struck first on a Maggie Ogden layup, but it was all Eagles (20-2) after that. They ripped off 11-straight and showcased their silky shooting.
Delani Walker and Chloe DeHaro led the Eagles with 11 points apiece.
“We came out how we were supposed to come out,” senior Delani Walker said. “Come out on fire, we had the intensity and it carried and we kept going and made it to the end.”
Freshman point guard Ashlyn Chase. (Photo by Justin Reed)
Aliyah Henry added 10 points for West Valley.
The rest of the half featured the Eagles keeping Clarkston at arm’s length, taking a 31-14 lead into intermission.
“The biggest thing I told them at halftime was we have to keep our composure,” West Valley coach Rick James said. “Just bend, don’t break because they are a very good team. They’re going to come back at us, we just have to make sure we stay strong.”
They needed every ounce of that encouragement as Clarkston hung around and tried to leverage their defense during its second-half comeback.
That defensive aggressiveness led to a slow start to the second half for the Eagles as Clarkston switched up its defense and initiated a 1-3-1 press.
There were a few minutes where West Valley looked perplexed at the pressure and almost the entire second half featured harassing Bantam defense.
Walker said the Eagles just had to lean on their mental fortitude — the same mentality she said has carried them all season.
“We just had enough confidence in ourselves that we could win this game,” Walker said.
West Valley was able to survive, as the Eagles worked the ball around to all their weapons to keep the lead intact.
“Our team is so unselfish, it has to be the most unselfish team I’ve ever had, we spread the ball around,” James said. “We have subs here that could be starting for other teams. Coaching against our team, you can’t just focus on one person, we have a lot of weapons.”
The Bantams forced the ball to Kendall Wallace late to help bring them closer, but that allowed the Eagles to focus on the sophomore guard.
“Wallace is an amazing player, their whole team is amazing,” Walker said. “Beating a team three times in a season is very hard, but we persevered and came out on top.”
Wallace finished with a team-high 15 points, draining three 3’s in the process. Ogden chipped in 11 points and Erika Pickett had 10.
---Justin Reed; @JustinReed99.
