Malia Samuels, Katie Fiso lead furious final-quarter rally Garfield past Arlington into 3A title game

TACOMA, Wash. — Malia Samuels walked out of the Garfield High School girls basketball team's huddle at the end of the third quarter with her eyes glared. 

She walked toward the sideline, looked at her teammates and shouted, "It's our time!" as she aggressively pointed her finger to the Tacoma Dome floor. 

So Samuels and fellow standout point guard Katie Fiso took over. 

Garfield then outscored Arlington by 20 in the final quarter after entering the period trailing by six as the second-ranked Bulldogs made a statement in their 56-42 victory in the 3A state semifinals on Friday. 

The win gives them a rematch of the last 3A title game here, when Garfield beat Lake Washington in the 2020 tournament. They play again at 9 p.m. Saturday after Lake Washington upset No. 1 Mead. 

"We had a mindset that we're not losing this game," said Fiso, who scored a game-high 25 points on 8-for-13 shooting and helped the Bulldogs improve to 20-0. "We came together as a team and just played for each other." 

Garfield's defense left No. 3 Arlington stunned the final period. 

Jenna Villa hit a running jumper at the third-quarter buzzer that seemingly gave the Eagles all the momentum after they earned a grind-out victory over Snohomish the day before. 

But then Samuels orchestrated some key drives from the top of the key, smoothly making her way through screens to quickly cut the lead to 39-38. 

Samuels finished with 15 points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals after the junior guard, who transferred before the year from Eastside Catholic, nearly finishing with a triple-double in Garfield's quarterfinal win over Lakeside of Seattle. 

But Samuels' buckets were the start of a 23-3 fourth-quarter run for Garfield. 

Sarah Lessig hit the go-ahead bucket of of Samuels' assist to give Garfield the lead at 40-39 and the Bulldogs never looked back, with Fiso putting the stamp on the finish with her steal and layup with 2:42 to play that put Garfield ahead 44-39. 

"We're built for this," Fiso said. "All the hate, all the good stuff — we're built for it. We're excited.

"I'm a dog. We're a team full of dogs. We're dogs no matter what." 

And Garfield shut down Villa in the final quarter in a game where the 6-foot-2 Arlington junior scored 12 points with five rebounds and six assists. She and Fiso are AAU teammates during the offseason. 

"They're a great team," Fiso said. "I played with Jenna on the AAU circuit. That's my dog right there. She had a hell of a game. That's a great team that's well coached." 

What makes Garfield's run all the more impressive is, despite its clear talent led by Samuels and Fiso and bookended by 6-foot-3 junior post Imbie Jones and standout freshmen Jayda Lewis, that the Bulldogs are so young, with just two seniors. 

"We just had to get our defense figured out," Fiso said. "Once we did that and started rebounding and controlling the ball, we set the tone."