LA CENTER — The La Center girls basketball team had to wait a few minutes longer than expected on Thursday to kick off the Class 1A District 4 Tournament. And it took some time for the Wildcats to find their shooting touch.
But La Center still got off to a fast start in district play thanks to tenacious defense, running past visiting Eatonville for a 62-36 win that sends the Wildcats to a district semifinal game.
La Center (19-2) will play Evergreen Conference champion Montesano (19-2) Saturday at Centralia High School. Montesano beat Stevenson on Thursday 58-37.
Three players scored in double figures and La Center made 21 steals in the runaway win. The Wildcats stretched their lead to 20 points by starting the third quarter with an 11-3 burst that included seven points in less than 10 seconds.
“Our second half is always our stronger half,” senior guard Andrea Griffee said.
The game started about 20 minutes late because the Cruisers had bus trouble on the way to La Center.
Griffee had seven steals on the night and helped finish off the Cruisers by hitting two 3-pointers in the third quarter.
“It was really nice to make those. I haven’t been making mine recently and to make those two really boosted my confidence,” she said.
But it was her defensive effort that stood out to La Center coach Herm VanWeerdhuizen.
“Griffee was back to her normal self on the defensive side again,” he said.
“We all work really hard on our defense in practice and it really paid off tonight,” Griffee said.
Freshman Taylor Stephens also hit a pair of 3-pointers in the third quarter and had three triples en route to a game-high 17 points. Sophomore post Taylor Mills chipped in 16 points and six rebounds for La Center.
Shelby Vermeulen played a strong second half for La Center and finished with a team-high eight rebounds. The bench got into the act, too. Whitley Seter grabbed six rebounds and Molly Edwards made four steals.
With only three seniors and a slew of underclassmen in prominent roles, VanWeerdhuizen said he is hopeful his team will continue to grow as the playoffs progress.
“I don’t think we’ve played our best basketball yet. Hopefully it comes sometime this year,” the coach said. “Our team played great defense tonight. Hopefully we continue doing that.”
LA CENTER 62, EATONVILLE 36
EATONVILLE – Mykayla Schoepf 7, Samantha Swartout 7, Taylor Wood 3, Madison Jumper 1, Mackenzie Jumper 9, Natasha Henley 3, Jaelin Hotz 0, Sarah Litzenberger 2, Peyton Hutchings 2, Brailee Vandenboom 2. Totals: 11-25 (3) 11-28 36.
LA CENTER – Molly Edwards 2, Ashley Denney 4, Whitley Seter 0, Bethany Whitten 4, Lauryn Powers 0, Shelby Vermelen 4, Taylor Mills 16, Andrea Griffee 15, Taylor Stephens 17, Alyssa McKnight 0. Totals 21-54 (5) 15-26 62.
Eatonville 8 6 10 12–36
La Center 11 15 19 17–62
