No. 1 Woodinville girls ride second half spurt 4A regional round win over Bellarmine Prep

MILL CREEK, Wash. — The final result belied the journey that got them to the end on Friday night.

At the buzzer, the top-ranked Woodinville girls basketball team had an 85-61 Class 4A regional victory over No. 8 seed Bellarmine Prep at Jackson High.

The Lions, however, kept this one competitive – at least for one half plus 22 seconds.

Woodinville controlled the game inside. The Falcons (23-1) dominated on the boards. And four Woodinville players scored in double figures.

(READ: Class 4A girls basketball regional preview: Is Woodinville finally ready to take finishing step?)

But it took a third-quarter run to get away from the upstart Lions.

Both teams still advance to the Tacoma Dome for the state tournament that begins Wednesday.

With the victory, the Falcons get a first-round bye and will begin their tournament with a 10:30 a.m. quarterfinal on Thursday against one of Wednesday’s first-round winners. The loss set up a rematch for Bellarmine, which will meet Camas in a 2 p.m. first-round game on Wednesday.

The Lions beat Camas in the teams final bi-district contest, 73-65, just a week ago to earn the No. 8 seed. The Papermakers are the No. 9 seed.

Here are two takeaways:

Long-Range Sharp-Shooting Kept it Close

Woodinville scored the game’s first five points. But Bellarmine (16-5) countered over the first half with five of its nine 3-pointers made in the game. That kept the game competitive through the first 16 minutes.

The Falcons extended its lead to six, 30-24, with 5 minutes, 21 seconds left in the second quarter on one of six first-half field goals from Tatum Thompson, who scored 14 of her game-high 26 points in the half.

Katie Christensen immediately made one of those 3-pointers, though, to close the gap again. Brooke Beresford scored four straight to extend the Woodinville advantage to eight, 39-31.

And Jada Travis responded with four points in the final 1:18 of the half to get the Lions to the break trailing by just four, 39-35.

Keiara Christensen then opened the third with a 3-pointer that tightened the contest again, 39-38, with with 7:38 to go in the quarter.

“I know we made some threes,” Bellarmine interim coach Kabre Keller said. “But we play better when we have more layups. That’s what happened tonight. They had more rebounds and layups.”

The Run to End It

Clinging to that single-point advantage, Woodinville dropped the hammer on both ends.

“Those kids can score,” Bullock said. “So, a really exciting first half. But we knew we could take it to another level, and that’s what we talked about at the half. And they came out, the defense in the third quarter, to extend the lead and pretty much finish the game.”

Thompson began the decisive spurt with one of her myriad of baskets near the rim with 7:25 to go in the quarter. By the time Keiara Christensen made two free throws with 2:03 to go, Woodinville had made nine field goals as part of a 20-0 run that extended the margin from one to 59-38.

“We saw that it was close in the first half, and they were getting to us,” Beresford said. “Our mentality wasn’t all there. In the second half, we just took off.”

Beresford finished with 21 points and added 14 rebounds. The other two Falcons in double figures were Veronica Sheffey with 19 and Jaecy Eggers, who scored 14 points and grabbed eight offensive rebounds.