BATTLE GROUND — So many moments this season, Washougal’s girls basketball team’s has shown signs of growth.
They won the 2A Greater St. Helens League title behind growth. They grew from a first-round district upset loss at home to earn a regional berth.
Tiana Barnett never doubted she her teammates couldn’t make Yakima for a third straight year, and neither did first-year coach Britney Knotts.
That’s where the growth came Saturday, too, in a 55-38 loser-out 2A girls regional victory over Fife at Battle Ground High School. It didn’t come easy for the Panthers, who committed 12 turnovers in the game’s opening 10 minutes, but players like Barnett had the game of her life to get Washougal (20-5) back to the Yakima.
“Now we’re on our way to the Dome,” Barnett said.
The Yakima Valley SunDome, that is, to face defending 2A state champion Lynden at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. Barnett, a junior, had a team-best 16 points off the bench and six assists, far bettering her season average of 2.7 points a game to give the Panthers a much-needed spark. Her 10 points by halftime spearheaded a 11-0 run when a fiesty, smaller Fife (15-10) team used its pressure defense to force nine steals to take a 22-12 lead by the 5:22 mark of the second quarter.
By Barnett’s own admission, slow starts are nothing new for Washougal, but she and her Panther teammates weren’t about to go down without a battle.
“I felt I needed to come in and up lift them as much as possible,” Barnett said, “and I didn’t want to see my team get down.”
Washougal never trailed again after Barnett’s 3 and a putback made it a 29-24 advantage inside 2 minutes left in the half. The Panthers held Fife scoreless the final 3:06 of the half.
Christina Willis, the Trojans’ point guard who did the majority of the scoring for Fife in the first half, was limited to two second-half points.
Beyonce Bea (14 points) and Skylar Bea (13) each finished with double-doubles for Washougal.
Knotts said she and her assistant coaches saw a Yakima-bound team at the start of the season. The key was to get the players to believe it, too.
Said Knotts: “From the beginning, I’ve been telling them, ‘We’ve got to keep pushing because it’s all going to be worth it.’”
