It's Friday night - it's Fiso time as Garfield advances to WIAA Class 3A girls basketball title game
TACOMA - Katie Fiso knew exactly what needed to happen when the third quarter began Friday night.
“Obviously, I wasn’t providing a lot of points for my team in the first half,” Fiso said. “I knew what I had to do in the second half to get the lead up.”
What the Garfield junior did was pour in 18 of her game-high 26 points after the break in the Bulldogs' Class 3A girls state semifinal against Mead.
That performance translated into a 63-54 victory that advances Garfield into its third consecutive title game.
The Bulldogs have won each of their past two trips to the finalg ame, thus go for the coveted three-peat at 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon in the first of four 3A and 4A girls and boys title games to be played at the Tacoma Dome.
“We put it on their mind just to let them know it’s historic,” Garfield coach Tre Simmons said.
The Bulldogs needed the second-half scoring effort from Fiso, who’d spent much of the first half focused on her defensive effort against Greater Spokane League player of the year Teryn Gardner. The Panthers junior got off to a quick start scoring the basketball despite Fiso’s best efforts.
Gardner scored six of the first 10 for Mead, which built an early 10-6 lead. Another Gardner basket with 1 minute, 19 seconds to play in the first quarter put the Panthers on top, 18-14, as the Nos. 1 and 4 seeds to the tournament played to a 20-20 tie after one quarter and a 28-28 tie by halftime.
Gardner scored 17 of her team-leading 25 points in the first half.
“She’s an amazing basketball player,” Fiso said. “Definitely hard to guard. You don’t always see a lot of great talent like that. I knew she was getting a bunch on me, so that motivated me.”
Thus, the second-half performance to ultimately lead all scorers. Not to mention the 10 rebounds, three assists and three steals she added to the cause in leading Garfield back to the championship game.
