TACOMA — The Prairie girls basketball team is used to creating turnovers, not committing them.
The Falcons were on the wrong side of that statistic Thursday at the Class 3A state girls basketball tournament in the Tacoma Dome.
Bellevue, with its athletic, quick lineup, had 16 steals and never trailed in a 51-39 victory in the quarterfinals.
Prairie will play at 10:30 a.m. Friday in the consolation bracket.
“We’re not used to playing such tall, long teams,” Prairie senior Lindsay Asplund said. “We got caught telegraphing our passes. We adjusted. It was just a little too late.”
Prairie had 15 turnovers in the first half, seven in the second. Even if they had fewer turnovers later in the game, the Falcons still had a tough time shooting over the Wolverines. Prairie finished 15 of 61 from the floor.
“If we could have shot just a little bit better, we could have stayed with them the whole way,” Prairie coach Brett Johnson said.
Even with all that going against the Falcons, they were still within striking distance for most of the contest.
Asplund had 10 of her 15 points in the first half, keeping Prairie within seven at the break. Cherita Daugherty had 10 of her 15 points in the second half.
The Falcons were within eight points with 4:31 to play after Asplund grabbed an offensive rebound, then found Daugherty for a 3-pointer. Bellevue’s Shelby Cansler, though, scored the next five points, pushing the lead back to 13. She led the Wolverines with 21 points.
Prairie managed to make it a seven-point game with a minute to play, but Cansler followed with a three-point play to end it.
The Falcons were disappointed with their start. Bellevue stole the ball on Prairie’s first four possessions and scored the first eight points.
“That’s what we told the girls. ‘What happened to our ball fakes?’ We were just throwing the ball away early,” Johnson said.
Bellevue also scored the first nine points of the second quarter.
Daugherty credited Bellevue’s defense for getting Prairie out of sorts.
Some 20 minutes after the game, Daugherty and the Falcons were trying to move on to the next mission.
“Now that we can’t have a championship, the thing we want to do is go out and play hard the next two games,” she said. “That’s our goal now, focus on the next two games.”
If the Falcons win Friday, they will play for fourth place Saturday.
“It’s not over. We got over the hurdle from last year. This is much improved,” Johnson said, referring to the team’s loss in the regional round in 2014. “We can still get fourth place out of this.”
BELLEVUE 51, PRAIRIE 39
PRAIRIE — Lindsay Asplund 15, Jozie Tangeman 7, Grace Prom 0, Jamie Phares 0, Emily Peters 0, Cherita Daugherty 15, Natalie Whitesel 2. Totals 15-61 (3-24) 6-9 39.
BELLEVUE — Dejah Rogers 5, Elisa Park 0, Kathryn Roberts 0, Tatiana Streun 9, Morgan Maring 0, Mackenzie Keeter 2, AnnMarie Jacobs 0, Mandy Steward 14, Shelby Cansler 21. Totals 17-50 (6-18) 11-22 51.
